Assam budget: Govt to set up development corporation for indigenous Muslims

This was announced by Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma during his budget speech on Wednesday.

Sarma on Wednesday presented the state budget for the financial year 2019-20 in the Assam Legislative Assembly.

Said the minister, "Assam has a rich history of brotherhood among different communities, and one of the most important segment making up our unique social fabric, is the Indigenous Muslims."

“The indigenous Muslims of Assam - Goria, Moria, Ujani, Deshi, Jola, Poimal, Syed, etc.- have always played an extremely important role in the social and economic progress of the state. However, this community, off late, has been facing a crisis of identity and the developmental wave seems to have skipped this community. It is high time that the state initiated a special and focused program aimed at the all-round developmental of this community," he said.

"As an initial step, our government intends to conduct a socio-economic census of the Indigenous Muslims of the state which will help us assess their socio-economic condition. We will also establish a Development Corporation for the Indigenous Muslims which will take up various programs aimed at the holistic development of this section of the society, including self-employment activities, provisioning banking linkages etc. Once the corporation is formed during the course of the year,” Sarma said.

The Assam budget has allocated Rs 100 crore for taking up various developmental and employment related activities.

On the other hand, Assam government will construct Assam Bhawans at new locations such as Pune, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Bhopal, Jaipur, Ahmadabad and Bhubaneswar and the process should kick off in financial year 2019-20. The state budget allocated Rs 706.00 crore for it.

Sarma said in his budget speech that, for sustainable economic growth of poor weavers of the state, a Scheme of “Economic upliftment of weaver” was announced 2018-19 under which 100 groups of 20 weavers each were selected.

"I propose to continue this scheme in 2019-20 covering 300 groups and allocate Rs. 15 crore for the same," said he.

The Assam Finance minister has also allocated Rs 2287 crore to the hill areas department for the financial year 2019-20 to develop the hill areas of the state.

“The Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) and North Cacher Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) are being administered by the Hill Areas Department as the nodal department of the State Government. The present government is committed towards the overall socio-economic growth and sustainable development to ensure lasting peace and harmony in the Hill Areas of Assam. Both the Autonomous Councils are being empowered by our Government to achieve their development goals. In Karbi Anglong, we had promised a special grant of Rs. 10 crore for each of the 26 constituencies of Autonomous Councils. To this effect, we have already released an amount of Rs. 100 crore in the year 2018-19 and we shall release the remaining sum of Rs. 160 crore in year 2019-20 thereby fulfilling our commitment," said Sarma.

The state government has decided to create a separate new district from the existing Dima Hasao district considering its large geography and hilly terrain, which makes the access of government services difficult for the citizens.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)