Tarun Gogoi clears his stand

GUWAHATI, February 24: Reacting to the self–immolation by a resident of the Gorchuk area of Guwahati, Pranab Boro, on Monday during a protest by the KMSS against the Tarun Gogoi government’s land patta policy, Gogoi, while interacting with the media, wondered as to what wrong thing his government had done that an innocent man should go in for self–immolation.

‘‘The whole incident is very unfortunate. There is no justification for such action provoked by some organizations. The land patta distribution programme was a demand made by some organizations. We were just doing our duty. Let all understand that land pattas cannot be given in forest lands, wetlands and hilly areas. Even the Central government cannot do this due to certain environmental norms,’’ said Gogoi.

He also slammed KMSS chief Akhil Gogoi for not raising his voice during Narendra Modi’s visit to Assam.

When reporters asked him whether any action would be taken against Akhil Gogoi, the Chief Minister said, ‘‘If necessary we shall take legal action.’’

The Chief Minister also said that Monday’s incident would have no impact on Congress vice–president Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Guwahati on Tuesday.

The Chief Minister has said that the State Government would take the responsibility of the family of Pranab Boro.

(Source)The Sentinel — The Largest Media group of North-East India — focused on news publishing. Combined circulation of the group is over 120,000 newspapers per day, making it the largest newspaper group in the region. The Sentinel is the only English daily in the Northeast India with five editions published simultaneously from Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Shillong, Silchar and Itanagar. For all local, national and international news please visit http://www.sentinelassam.com/