Statehood demand: Gogoi appeals to AKRSU to end agitation

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today appealed to the leaders of All-Koch Rajbongshi Students' Union to suspend their agitation demanding a separate Kamtapur state and enter into a dialogue with the government.
AKRSU had called a 31-hour Assam bandh that ended this morning in support of a separate Kamtapur state carved out of Assam and West Bengal on the lines of Telangana.
Normal life was hit in the lower Assam districts of Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Baksa, Dhubri and Goalpara.
Gogoi assured a 10-member AKRSU delegation, led by its president Biswajit Ray and general secretary Pradip Ray, which called on him that the government would look into their various demands but "peace has to prevail for the process of dialogue to begin".

The chief minister assured them that his government would facilitate talks between the AKRSU, the Prime Minister and the Home Minister.
On the issue of the outfit's demand for Scheduled Tribes (Plains) status, Gogoi said that his government has been all along pursuing the matter with the Centre.
Gogoi also assured the leaders that the government would consider their various demands which include an engineering institute at Bongaigaon, allotment of land for Bir Chilarai guest house at Guwahati, immediate construction of Bir Chilarai Sports and Cultural Complex with a research centre at Bongaigaon.
The meeting was attended among others by Chief Secretary P P Varma, Principal Secretary Home & Political Sailesh, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Jishnu Barua and Additional Director General of Police (Special Branch) Pallab Bhattacharyya.