Gogoi - Turnaround: leading Assam from the front

TURNAROUND

Leading Assam from the Front

TARUN GOGOI

HarperCollins Publishers India

Dedicated to my parents
Dr Kamaleshwar and Smt. Usha Gogoi

CONTENTS

Map of Assam

1947: Assam becomes part of the newly independent India.

1961: Assamese becomes the states official language.

1974: From Shillong, the capital of Assam shifts to Dispur.

1979: Assam movement starts against Bangladeshi immigrants. Presidents Rule enforced. Incidents of mass violence reported from Nellie in Morigaon district.

1980: Elections held only in two seats in Barak Valley. The Congress wins both.

1985: Assam Accord signed, puts an end to the Assam agitation. Asom Gana Parishad comes to power in the state.

1991: The Congress comes to power. Hiteshwar Saikia sworn in as chief minister.

2001: The Congress returns to power after five years of AGP rule.

2012: In July, violence breaks out between the indigenous Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims. Seventy-seven people die and more than 400,000 are displaced from almost 400 villages, taking shelter in 270 relief camps.

2014: A series of attacks by militants result in seventy-six deaths in Chirang, Sonitpur and Kokrajhar districts on 23 December 2014. Attacks attributed to the Songbijit faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland.

SHRI TARUN GOGOI will soon be completing three terms as the Chief Minister of Assam. This period of fifteen years has witnessed a remarkable transformation of Assams economy and polity. This transformation owes a great deal to the wise and enlightened leadership provided by Shri Gogoi to the government and people of Assam.

In this book, entitled Turnaround: Leading Assam from the Front, Shri Gogoi has given a lucid account of the challenges he faced as chief minister and the manner in which he has grappled with those challenges, converting them into opportunities to write a new shining chapter in the long and tortuous history of Assam.

Shri Gogoi assumed office as chief minister for the first time in May 2001. He inherited from the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) government, which ruled Assam from 1996 to 2001, an economy in deep crisis, crippled by multiple insurgencies and characterized by the collapse of law and order and gross financial mismanagement.

In grappling with the state of deep crisis that he inherited, Shri Gogoi was helped by his vast political experience in Delhi first as joint secretary and later as general secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), working closely with Smt. Indira Gandhi, Shri Sanjay Gandhi and Shri Rajiv Gandhi. He was elected to the Lok Sabha four times, beginning in 1971. He held the position of minister with independent charge of the Union food ministry in the Congress government led by Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao as prime minister. In 1993, he was shifted to the ministry of food processing. His long stay and experience gained in Delhi enriched his outlook in functioning at the national level and also helped him in discharging his new responsibilities as chief minister. Even then, it was by no means an easy task to grapple effectively with the onerous responsibilities of the office of chief minister of a crisis-ridden state. It is a great tribute to Shri Gogois qualities of head and heart that he proved more than equal to the challenging task entrusted to his care of managing the affairs of a difficult state like Assam.

As mentioned by Shri Gogoi, the legacy left by the AGP government obliged him to grapple effectively with three sets of issues, namely, gross financial and fiscal mismanagement, fighting insurgencies and revival and acceleration of inclusive development.

On assuming office, Shri Gogoi found that there was a huge budget deficit and, starved of funds, the Government of Assam could not pay even salaries to its employees for months on end. Public sector enterprises, particularly those belonging to power and transport sectors, were on the verge of total collapse. The financial crisis had almost paralysed the government. Therefore, revamp of the finance department was considered by Shri Gogoi to be his top priority. Plugging loopholes in revenue collection, reform of public enterprises and levy of value added tax (VAT) led in due course to a turnaround in the states financial situation. In 201314, the state had a revenue surplus of Rs 2.23 billion. The fiscal deficit to Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) rate stood at 2.3 per cent as against the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) target of 3 per cent. Debt to GSDP ratio stood at 17 per cent, well below the FRBM target of 28.4 per cent. There has been a twofold increase in tax revenue, from Rs 49.87 billion in 200910 to Rs 89.95 billion in 201415 at a growth rate of 17 per cent. The improvement in fiscal resources enabled the state to increase its development spending on infrastructure and social and economic services.

When the Congress government came to office in May 2001, the state was faced with multiple insurgencies, the most prominent being the movements led by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and Bodo extremists. Through effective counter-insurgency strategies, the situation has greatly improved over the years. The change that has come about has been aptly summed up by the chief minister in this book. As pointed out by him, Earlier before the Congress rule, there were pockets of peace in an insurgency-dominated state; now, there are pockets of insurgency in a peaceful state. On a scale of 100, I would rate my success at eighty. Insurgency had led to the flight of capital; now capital is returning with the flight of insurgents.

Shri Gogoi has always recognized that meaningful solutions to Assams problems of poverty and unemployment can only be found within the framework of a rapidly expanding economy.

With increased availability of resources, the states expenditure on development projects and programmes has gone up substantially, opening up new vistas of opportunities for speeding up development. Special emphasis has been given to the expansion and modernization of social and economic infrastructure of roads and bridges, education and health services, paying special attention to the needs of women, children and the youth, particularly those living in backward regions and those who belong to backward communities. Agriculture being the backbone of the economy, greater emphasis is being laid on increasing acreage and production. Over 8 lakh kisan cards have been issued to enable farmers to secure bank loans. A plan has been put into operation to usher in a white revolution by organizing milk producers for efficient procurement, processing and marketing.

The chief minister has a vision to make Assam the hottest tourist destination, and the Assam government is in the process of engaging a branding and communication agency to aggressively promote the state.

Thanks to the increased emphasis on health services, there has been a significant improvement in social indicators. The maternal mortality rate fell from 480 per one lakh live births in 2004 to 330 in 2009. The infant mortality rate fell from 64 per 1,000 live births in 2006 to 46 per 100 live births in 2009. In 201011, 5.2 million Below Poverty Line (BPL) families were provided with mosquito nets.