Guwahati: Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday
said that the peace process between the Assam government and
the banned ULFA is likely to begin in December.
Describing as "positive" his meeting between peace
interlocutor P C Haldar and incarcerated top ULFA leaders in
the Guwahati Central Jail yesterday, Gogoi told reporters "I
am hopeful that we will start the process for the talks like
modalities, by December... the real talks between the ULFA and
government will, however, take some time."
"There is a positive and good signal from the jailed
ULFA leaders though Haldar informed me there are some
problems," Gogoi said.
When asked to enumerate the problems, he said "court and
law issues are there but we have tried to remove the obstacles
for the peace talks".
He said that the Centre and the Congress is satisfied
with the law and order situation in the state. "I met the
Prime Minister, Home Minister and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi
in Delhi this week and they are very happy with the law and
order situation in Assam as we have been successful in
controlling insurgency."
The Chief Minister asserted that when the Congress came to
power nine-year ago there were rampant incidents of violence
by militants and other elements..."but for the last two years
we have been successful in controlling violence. Now we have
come to the talks stage."
"Haldhar has talked with the ULFA and other insurgent
outfits like the DHD (Dima Halam Daogah) earlier. The biggest
credit of our government has been the control of militancy and
improvement of law and order. We took up development
activities along with the peace process", he added.
PTI
