CM Gogoi asks ULFA to return to talks table

Unveiling his new year plans here today, Gogoi said he had a three-pronged strategy for tackling poverty and bringing about overall development of the state in the next two or three years.

“Poverty alleviation is my government’s main thrust, and we want to create employment opportunities for two lakh people every year, with the focus on self-employment activities,” Gogoi said.

The state government, he said, would also recruit about 25,000 people in the next two years, which includes school teachers, police constables and other similar personnel. “We have already started attacking the problem of unemployment by motivating a large number of people, especially in the rural areas, to take up income-generating activities,” he said.

Gogoi said every girl belonging to BPL families and studying in Class VII and above would be given a bicycle for free which would encourage them to attend schools. “More and more girls need to attend school and complete secondary education and this scheme will definitely motivate them,” the chief minister said. Assam incidentally has a very high rate of dropouts especially among adolescent girls.

The scope of the ongoing free textbooks scheme on the other hand was being further expanded to cover about 74 lakh school students. Schools set up by the communities in rural areas as also schools in tea garden areas would also be covered under the free textbook scheme, he added.

Children of families affected by insurgency-related violence will get financial support to pursue education till the age of 18 while women widowed due to insurgency would be given a monthly sustenance support, the chief minister said.

The chief minister also announced that over three lakh families below the poverty line would each get a blanket, while over 10 lakh families in different districts would be provided a blanket each. “Malaria is one preventable disease that we want to tackle seriously,” Gogoi said. Over 150 persons died of malaria in Assam in 2006.