Citizenship Amendment Bill: Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal To Meet PM Modi After Anti-CAB Protests In State

A day after anti-Citizenship (Amendment) bill protests rocked the state, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Tuesday (5 November) evening rushed to Delhi.

Sonowal is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (6 November). Apart from Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), Sonowal is also likely to take up the issue of the ongoing talks between the NSCN (IM) and Central government and its impact on Assam.

Several civil society organisations in Assam have started a series of anti-CAB protests across the state from Monday. Organisations like AASU, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) and several others have threatened to launch house to house campaign to make the people aware against the CAB.

The AASU had staged protest rallies and sit in demonstrations in different parts of the state on Monday and vowed to continue its agitation against the CAB. The KMSS had also vowed to oppose CAB tooth and nail.

Although Assam had not seen much protests over the ongoing Naga talks and its impact in the state, tension is simmering in areas along the Assam-Nagaland border and in Dima Hasao and Karbi Anglong districts of Assam over the Naga talks.

The Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao in central Assam have sizable Naga population.

"The Chief Minister is also likely to take up the issue of privatisation of Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), a profit making public sector undertaking," sources in Dispur said adding that he is also likely to take up the issues of talks between the ULFA and NDFB and the big dams.

"Big dams is also an issue which is likely to crop up during the discussion with the Prime Minister," sources said.

Assam had recently witnessed protests against the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) after they had taken up construction works of the 2000 MW Lower Subansiri power project.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)