The All Assam Students Union (AASU) has declared a 12-hour Assam bandh on January 24 to protest the unified command structure which became operational yesterday.
Public outcry has already begun in Assam against the decision to accept the Centres proposal for a unified command structure for the army, police and para military forces in the state.
The first meeting of the unified command structure held here yesterday has presided over by the chief secretary T K Kamilla. Army corps commander Lt Gen. R K Sawhney, who is in overall charge of the operations against militants, besides senior officials of the para military forces, also attended the meeting.
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Strict instructions have been given to field level commanders to maintain maximum restraint while conducting operations and not to harass the old and the infirm and women so as to avoid allegations of human rights AASU, which has long been comparatively soft towards the AGP, has criticised the state government for accepting the arrangement and threatened to launch a strong democratic movement against the move. They are particularly critical of the fact that the operational command is with the army. The state Congress, too, has criticised the new arrangement. Congress legislature party secretary Bharat Narah said Union home minister Indrajit Gupta has made a mockery of the elected government in the state by introducing the unified command structure. Narah said since law and order is a state subject. It was the state governments prerogative to make announcements on policy matters in the law and order front.The Purbanchaliya Loka Parishad (PLP), a regional party, said the entre has taken recourse to the arrangement only to bail out the AGP government from the present crisis and avoid imposition of Presidents rule in the state.
PLP general secretary Bisheswar Deka alleged that the interests of the indigenous people in Assam was not safe at the hands of the Prafulla Mahanta government.
A new outfit of the state Congress, the Progressive Young Forum of Assam, has demanded publication of a white paper on the circumstances leading to the unified command structure coming into force in the state and on the present locus standi of the Mahanta government itself.