Rinkumani Pathak
GUWAHATI: Assam chief minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday held an interactive session with over 150 intellectuals and leading citizens from religious minority communities in Guwahati.
The session titled ‘Alaap Alochana: Empowering the Religious Minorities’ centered around socio-economic issues affecting the indigenous Muslim population of Assam.
Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Sarma said a total of eight sub groups will be formed with members from the indigenous Muslim community to suggest various developmental measures.
“Today I met over 150 intellectuals, writers, doctors, artistes, historians and professors among others. We discussed various issues confronting the Assamese minority people,” he added.
All present in the meeting agreed that ‘population explosion’ in some parts of Assam pose a threat to the development of the state, he said.
“If Assam wants to become one of the top five states in India, then we have to manage our population explosion. This was agreed by all,” Sarma said.
He also added the government will be forming eight sub groups with members from the indigenous Muslim community and these will submit reports on development of the community within the next three months.
“After compilation of the reports, a roadmap will be created to uplift people from the minority community. We will work in the next five years according to that roadmap,” Sarma said.
The chief minister also told reporters that the next round of meetings will be held with politicians and student bodies representing the minority community.
