Assam in 2017: Of NRC, scams, arrests & floods

Arrest of senior officials in several corruption-related cases, updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and spells of devastating floods kept Assam in news in 2017.
Corruption issues dominated the headlines as Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal launched an all-out investigation by his Vigilance Cell to unearth scams in different departments leading to the arrest of several senior officials.
The most talked-about scam was the multi-crore Assam Public Service Commission's (APSC) 'cash for job' with its former chairman Rakesh Paul arrested the previous year and his interrogation and investigations leading to the arrest of 25 Assam Civil Service (ACS) and Assam Police Service (APS) officials of the 2015 batch.

The arrested ACS and APS officials, including a son of a former Congress minister, relatives of a BJP MLA and an MP and former bureaucrats, along with Paul, continue to be in jail and have been denied bail by the Gauhati High Court.
Another high-profile corruption case was the Rs 32 crore scam in the Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) and its then director Ranjit Gogoi arrested for his alleged involvement in irregularities related to the 'Vision Assam Mission Assam' (VAMA) media campaign by the previous Congress government for the financial year 2015-16.
In yet another scam investigated by the Chief Minister's Vigilance Cell, senior IAS official and former commissioner of the labour department Chohan Doley along with a contractor was arrested in connection with the Rs 121 crore printing scam in the Assam Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board.

Investigations into the multi-crore scam in the social welfare department led to the arrest of seven persons, including six officials of the department, and 32 others, including three former social welfare ministers (Congress), have been questioned since the BJP-led government ordered a probe in November 2016.

Earlier in the year, secretary of the state irrigation department Kujendra Doley was arrested while allegedly accepting a bribe from a contractor at the state secretariat and huge amount of cash was also recovered from his office.
Another major issue that dominated the state was the National Register of Citizens for Assam, the draft of which is to be released by December 31 as deadline fixed by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court recently ruled that this would be only be a "part draft and there will be another publication of the remaining portion of the draft NRC at a later date" to include the names of those people who have been left out and who are found eligible after scrutiny.
The NRC is being prepared to segregate names of genuine Indian citizens living in Assam from those who had illegally entered the state from Bangladesh after March 25, 1971.
Under the procedures adopted, one has to link oneself to a family member whose name had appeared either in the NRC of 1951, or to any of the state's electoral rolls prepared till 1971.

The NRC updating has assumed a serious political issue with parties with a sizeable minority votebank fearing the deletion of members of the community. A section of the right wing parties have demanded the inclusion of Hindu migrants from Bangladesh which has been opposed strongly by the influential All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and other parties.
Assam this year witnessed the worst-ever floods in three decades with the Brahmaputra and the Barak rivers taking a devastating form, causing widespread destruction and claiming the lives of 160 people while more than thousand animals perished in four spells.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the flood situation in a series of meetings here in August and announced a Rs 2,350 crore relief package for the Northeast out of which Rs 2,000 would be used towards flood relief and rehabilitation in the region and Rs 250 crore was released immediately to Assam to tackle the situation.

The Brahmaputra again became a matter of concern towards the end of the year with its turbidity increasing alarmingly. Water samples have been collected from different parts of the state and sent to ascertain the cause behind the muddy water, the results of which are awaited.
Modi earlier visited the state on May 26 and addressed the nation to mark the first anniversary of the BJP in Assam and the third at the Centre. He also inaugurated the longest river bridge in the country --the Dhola Sadiya bridge -- and named it the Dr Bhupen Hazarika Setu.
Insurgency-related incidents in the state were comparatively less than the previous years but there were reports of increased activities by both the ULFA(I) and NDFB (S).

In a boost to sports in Assam, Guwahati was one of the venues of the FIFA U-17 World Cup and also hosted the AIBA Women's Youth World Championship, the T20 International Match between India and Australia and the first South Asian (SAARC) Badminton Championship.