BJP to ban illegal Bangla immigrants into Assam if voted to power: Amit Shah

GUWAHATI: BJP national president Amit Shan on Wednesday alleged that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh are taking away the jobs of locals in Assam and said if the party is voted to power in the upcoming assembly elections then it will stop illegal immigrants’ entry into the state.
He put the blame on the ruling Congress, alleging its vote-banl politics has encouraged illegal immigrant from Bangladesh.

“Illegal immigration is not limited to Assam, once the illegal immigrants enter the country they spread to as far as Mumbai,” the BJP president said at a party workers rally in Nagaon. “The Narendra Modi government has done an agreement with Bangladesh and soon the borders with Bangladesh will be fenced. Already this government has started identifying illegal immigrants; around 60,000 such illegal immigrants are identified,” he said.

Sounded the poll bugle of BJP, Shah also announced BJP’s alliance with Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) for the 2016 assembly polls at Kokrajhar where he attended the 13th anniversary of Bodoland accord inked by former prime minister A B Vajpayee. Bodoland has around 12 assembly seats.

BPF has sought a Rs 1,000 crore package as a condition for supporting BJP.

“We will give more than Rs 1,000 crore for the development of Bodoland,” Shah said. “Already BPF leaders has given to me details of where and how these money will be spent.”

BJP also returned to Lok Sabha campaign model as Shah attacked Congress in Assam for the killing of one-horned Rhinos by poachers. “In the last three years 100 rhinos were killed and if the Congress government remains in next 10 years there will be no rhinos here,” he said.

“In last 15 years development has taken a back seat in Assam. Despite being endowed with natural and human resource Assam is backward,” the BJP president said. “Congress rule in Assam is marked by corruption and benefiting their own family members. When country got independence Assam was a prosperous state, however, now it is one of the poor states of the country,” he alleged.

Shah said in 1962 then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had abandoned Assam in the wake of attack from China. “It was due to our soldiers that Assam is still part of India,” he said.

Shah claimed that states ruled by BJP, including Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have 24x7 electricity, roads, hospitals and drinking water. “Assam is one of the highest maternal mortality ratio. The state also has high cases of crime against women. Around 36% of people of Assam do not have electricity, around one crore people live below poverty line, and there is 23 lakh unemployed. Around 46% farmers do not have access to irrigation despite that fact that Assam has mighty river Brahmaputra,” he said.

The BJP president said that Tarun Gogoi-led government is yet to utilise several schemes of the Centre. “Even UPA government had stopped funds in some projects as the state did not submit the certificates. There must be a government here which can implement the schemes of Centre, not quarrel with the centre,” he said.