Guwahati, Sep 5 (PTI) Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi on Saturday alleged that the state government was resorting to unconstitutional means like imposing the National Security Act (NSA) to silence public dissent, citing the detention of indigenous rights activist Pranab Doley under the stringent law.
Indigenous rights activist Pranab Doley was arrested under the NSA, a day after a court granted him bail in a case related to protests against a proposed five-star hotel near Assam’s Kaziranga National Park last month.
Demanding unconditional release of Doley at a citizens’ protest meeting over the issue at Bokakhat in Golaghat district, the MP claimed his detention was a conspiracy by the government to deprive the people of their rights and undermine the uniqueness of Kaziranga for the sake of corporates.
Addressing the meeting, Gogoi criticised the government and alleged that it is resorting to unconstitutional measures like the NSA to stifle dissenting public voices.
The Congress leader asserted that detaining Doley was part of a conspiracy to strip indigenous people of their rights and undermine the uniqueness of Kaziranga, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to allow big corporates to take forward their business interests in the area.
The Jorhat MP demanded Doley’s immediate, unconditional release and the revocation of the decision to reduce the boundaries of Kaziranga’s Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) from the default 10 kms to 1-3 kms.
Gogoi alleged that the local administration had cancelled permission for holding the protest meet at a previously booked auditorium, while he lauded the organisers for arranging it at an alternative location on short notice.
He questioned why the ruling regime was “so intimidated by democratic assemblies and peaceful public protests”.
Senior Congress leader and former leader of opposition in the state Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, also addressing the gathering, maintained that the ruling dispensation is undermining the Constitution and using the machinery of the police and administration to intimidate the public.
Pointing out that Doley had secured bail in an earlier case before being slapped with the NSA on “unfounded charges of anti-national activity”, Saikia said that “standing up for the rights of the working class and defending one’s ancestral land can never be construed as treason”.
Referring to former Chief Minister late Sarat Chandra Sinha’s government empowering tillers through the historic ‘Land to the Tiller’ policy that granted tenancy rights, Saikia accused the current regime of undoing those safeguards to serve corporate tycoons.
Citing the alleged displacement at Mikir Bamuni Grant in Nagaon for Azure Power’s solar project, he alleged that a similar pattern is unfolding in Kaziranga’s Englepathar to facilitate a luxury hotel within an ESZ.
Saikia also alleged that the government has bypassed the compensation mandates of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, by offering inadequate payouts from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. PTI SSG SSG NN
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