AASU to launch stir against CAB from Nov 4

The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) on Saturday said it will launch a statewide agitation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill from November 4.

The decision was taken at the general body meeting of the students' organisation in Dhemaji district's Jonai.

"We are strictly against the CAB. We will not accept if the government tries to impose it on us," AASU Chief Adviser Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya said.

He said the AASU will launch demonstrations at all district headquarters on November 4 and then take the stir to the villages.

The CAB was passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8 but was not tabled in Rajya Sabha.

It seeks to grant citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian immigrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan even without valid documents after six years of residence in India.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said at a North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) meeting here in September that introduction of the CAB will not affect the existing laws of the states of the region.

Bhattacharya said the AASU will also agitate against the construction of the 2000 MW Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Power Project by NHPC.

He questioned why the Centre was going ahead with the project despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, during election campaigning, opposing construction of big dams.

Construction of the Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Power Project on Subansiri River at the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border has been stalled since December 2011 due to protests by locals and organisations over safety fears.

The NHPC had in August said it has received the requisite approval from the Assam government to go ahead with the construction of the dam and hoped to commence the work soon.

The PSU said the construction of the dam would be completed within the next three-and-half years at a total cost of Rs 20,000 crore.