Guwahati, June 17: Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia today wrote to chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal seeking his attention on issues like possible closure of two paper mills, government-owned tea gardens, controversy regarding recruitment of teachers in model schools and flooding in the city.

In the letter, he said hundreds of employees of Nagaon and Cachar paper mills and tea gardens under Assam Tea Corporation Limited are living in uncertainty. “Production in 12 gardens under the world’s oldest tea company has stopped and uncertainty is looming in other gardens too. Your intervention and strong step is of immediate need to rescue the gardens and its employees,” Saikia said.

He said the education department’s plan to recruit only English-medium teachers in model schools contradicted its announcement for improving education in Assamese-medium schools.

“Many teachers from Assamese medium have been teaching in various prominent educational institutions and doing research in various parts of the country and abroad,” he said.

He sought Sonowal’s attention to the alleged encroachment by people from neighbouring states and the harassment meted out to people.

“When the BJP government led by you came to power, people expected improvement in law and order but in the past year, crime has gone up. Besides, your government carried out massive eviction drives in which even indigenous people have been evicted from government land and forests without any proper rehabilitation plan,” he said.

Saikia also called for scientific measures to solve the waterlogging problem in the city.

Posted on The Telegraph