Kokrajhar (Assam): UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi today said refugees hit by the recent violence in lower Assam will have to wait for some time for the situation to become calmer before returning home.
"Naturally all refugees want to go back home, but this will take some more time till the situation is a little calmer," Gandhi, who was accompanied by Union Home Minister Sushil Shinde and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, told reporters outside the Titaguri Relief Camp.
"Once feelings are assuaged, the chief minister and others will make sure that they are able to go home," Gandhi said in a brief statement.
Ethnic clashes in Assam have claimed 77 lives.
Gandhi said she asked the refugees whether they were facing any problem in the camp or had any complaints but they they replied they had none.
"The refugees said that they were receiving rations regularly. Only two children were unwell and the doctors will attend to them," Gandhim who arrived here by helicopter from Guwahati, said.
She was accompanied by Assam Pradesh Congress chief Bhubaneswar Kalita, Bodoland Territorial Council chief Hagrama Mohilary and state ministers.
Gandhi and Shinde are on a day-long visit to trouble-torn Kokrajhar and Dhubri districts. They will visit two relief camps each in both the districts and review the situation with the chief minister.
Gandhi during her day-long visit also met delegations
from various political parties and civil society organisations and discussed measures to restore peace in the violence-hit areas of lower Assam.
She met Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) chief Hagrama Mohilary, Bodoland Peoples Front, All Bodo Students Union, All Koch Rajbanshi Students Union, All Bodoland Minority Students Union and Bodo Sahitya Sabha besides senior members of district Congress.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and Assam Pradesh Congress Chief Bhubaneswar Kalita, Bodoland Territorial Council Chief Hagrama Mohilary and other senior state ministers accompanied her.
The recent violence between Bodos and minority migrants in BTAD and Dhubri districts had caused four lakh people to take shelter in relief camps. A total 1.62 lakh of them have already returned home.
PTI
First Published: Monday, August 13, 2012, 13:34