Seven member team to visit Assam today
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, August 20, 2012: To assess relief and rehabilitation requirements of violence-affected people, a team of seven senior Central officials will visit Assam tomorrow.

The inter-ministerial delegation of Joint Secretaries will visit Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Chirang and Baksa districts and see the steps being taken for relief and rehabilitation of those affected during the recent violence between Bodos and immigrant minorities.

Apart from Joint Secretary (Northeast) in the Home Ministry Shambhu Singh and Joint Secretary (Disaster Management) R K Srivastava, the other officers belong to the Ministries of Health, Rural Development, Food, Department of Drinking Water and Planning Commission.

The team will hold meetings with state government officials and take stock of the plans being chalked out to implement the Rs 300-crore relief package announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for violence-hit survivors.

Singh had announced the package during his visit to some violence-hit areas.

The officials also held a meeting with Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth this evening which was also attended by Union Home Secretary R K Singh.

Shambhu Singh will be coordinator of the delegation.

As panic abates, NE people show willingness to return : As panic and fear, which prompted thousands of people from northeast to flee various parts of the country following "rumours" of backlash against Assam violence, subsides, many of them feel they could have stayed back and are determined to return to their jobs.

Most of the people, who returned to their native states in the last few days, admit they face an uncertain future as employment opportunities are limited - the reason why they left their native states in the first place.

Ujjal Baruah, Rayi Kurmi, Deepak Barman, Prasanta Bhattachjarya and Rumi Borthakur are among an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people who fled Bangalore alone and returned to their native towns in Assam.

"Once we reached here and looked back at the happenings of the past few days, we realise that there was nothing serious.

Maybe we should have stayed back," said Borthakur.

This thought also played on the minds of those who returned to Arunachal Pradesh.

"We don't know about our future.

Perhaps we could have stayed back," lamented Techi Boje, a security guard of a private farm in Hyderabad, who reached Itanagar three days ago.

Most say they chose to flee as they did not want to "take any risk" though they themselves did not come across any kind of violence.

Minam Tondrang, first year student of Sridevi Engineering Institute at Bangalore who reached Itanagar this morning, said "There is no concrete proof of any attack on people from the Northeastas, but I don't want to take risk so I decided to leave Bangalore".

"I had decided not to move out of Bangalore but my parents forced me to come.

Everything is calm in the city and there is no need to panic.

But how can I convince my parents?" said Prince Zungrang Lingphi, another first year engineering student from Bangalore.

"On August 13, my roommate Sharmila Bora and I received a text message each from unidentified numbers.

We were asked to leave because of what was happening in Assam," said Rumi Borthakur, who hails from Nagaon in central Assam.

She and her friend Bora both study in a private institute in Bangalore.

"Naturally, we were frightened and called our parents.

There was no question of getting involved with the police.

Our parents had only one advice for us � to return.

So we caught the first available train," said Borthakur.

Ujjal Baruah from Nalbari has been working for the past few years at various small hotels and restaurants in Bangalore.

"A day after the Azad Maidan incident in Mumbai, some Assamese youth came to have a meal in the restaurant where I work as a waiter.

I overheard them speaking about the situation and threats being sent by SMS.

I also decided to join the rush back home," Baruah said.

Another Nalbari-born youth Deepak Barman said he works as a cook for some Assamese students studying in Bangalore.

People also made a beeline to Arunachal Pradesh from some southern states where they are either working or undergoing higher studies.

"I reached Itanagar yesterday from Bangalore as all my class mates from Manipur and other Northeastern states left the city a few days ago.

Since the entire hostel is empty, so I decided to leave," Ashin Pangam, a first year engineering student, said.

"I have not left my hostel out of fear, but owing to feeling lonely," she said.

Not only students, many of the employees working in various private sector companies in Bangalore and Hyderabad have returned to the state.

Rickjyoti Batshya, a youth working with HDFC Bank in Bangalore, left the city recently on earned leave to evade any untoward incident.

"I came on leave by air spending a large chunk of money as I don�t want to take risk," he said.

"When we the northeasterners never threatened anybody residing in the region, why are we being discriminated against by our own countrymen in other parts?'' questioned Tamar Boye, an employee of a private company in Hyderabad.

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