A CORRESPONDENT
DHUBRI: Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass, in his first visit to Dhubri district as Guardian Minister, claimed to make Assam free from drugs and cattle smuggling soon during a press meet held at Circuit House here on Saturday.
Already 450 cases have been registered and over 500 drug peddlers rounded up, and the government would ensure that no cattle was transported to Assam from other States while Second Line of Defense along the Indo-Bangladesh International Border manned by Assam Police would be strengthened, Dass said.
Showing a framed photo of 2009, Dass said that in protest against cattle smuggling, he and the then BJP Dhubri district president Bimal Oswal ploughed the field in place of cattle, and this showed the party's commitment to root out this illegal trade.
In the same breath, he said that only permissible load of coal transportation would be allowed through the two gates — one at Cachar and other at Srirampur inter-State check gate in Kokrajhar district, while no transportation of coal would be allowed through the Sagolia inter-State Check gate in Dhubri district.
Replying to question, Dass said that opposition parties were trying to communalize the recent eviction of encroachers from the temple and xatras, which not in the best interest of the State.
"Even if masjid and church land is found to be encroached, it will be evicted, and all the land freed from the clutch of encroachers will be used for community-based agrarian activities," Dass said.
In the press meet, the minister appealed to families having annual income above Rs 1 lakh to surrender their ration cards. If such cards are surrendered by June 30, no action would be taken but if detected after the deadline, stern action would follow, he added. Dass also said that like salary of employees, pension would also be directly credited to the accounts of the beneficiaries. Later after review meeting with each head of department separately, he again briefed the media persons and appraised about the progress of development in the district.