Guwahati CM Sarbananda Sonowal meet focuses on jobs for indigenous people

GUWAHATI: Chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Tuesday held a high level meeting with senior government officials in presence of finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to open up avenues for generating better livelihood opportunities among the Ahom, Moran, Motok and Chutia communities living in different parts of Sivasagar, Charaideo, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts in upper Assam.

Finance minister Sarma said that the transformation and development department would prepare a broad guideline on exact nature of schemes that can be taken up by the districts.

At a time when Assam has been witnessing protests over the proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and seeking protection of their culture and identity, the chief minister's office said that the government endeavour is to realize the aspirations of the four indigenous communities. A CMO release said that the state government would soon take up various projects in a time bound manner. It added that these projects would primarily focus on preservation of historical sites, building sports and cultural infrastructure as well as taking up skill development programmes to generate better livelihood opportunities among the Ahom, Moran, Motok and Chutia community living in these four districts.

Sonowal, expressing his vision on the projects, directed the deputy commissioners of the respective districts to prepare plans. He added that the sports and cultural complexes should be built in the four districts and would be named after legendary personalities from these four communities.

Finance minister Sarma asked the deputy commissioners to hold extensive consultations with the representatives of the four communities and solicit their suggestions on the projects before submitting these to the government.

Additional chief secretary Rajib Bora, principal secretary to the chief minister Sanjay Lohiya, principal secretary to the finance department Sameer Sinha, principal secretary to sports department Avinash Joshi, commissioner and secretary of the cultural affairs department Preetom Saikia, alongwith the deputy commissioners of Dibrugarh, Tinsukia and Charaideo districts and senior government officials were present in the meeting.