Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has hit out at allegations of inaction against him, saying that the centre did not share intelligence inputs on the unrest in the four districts of the state with him and were too slow in sending troops to the violence hit areas of Western Assam.
“I received no intelligence inputs from the Centre. If they knew about the situation why did they not send troops in earlier?” he told a packed news conference in Assam. However, he also said that he had already known about the volatile situation in the state, saying that he did not need a report to know what was happening in his state.
PTI
Gogoi said he had sought security forces from the Centre as soon as he heard about the situation, but the troops took four days to arrive.
“I kept telling Centre we need more forces”, he said.
Gogoi also lashed out at the BJP for lending what he called a ‘communal flavor’ to the riots.
“These are not communal riots. Communal riots are Hindu-Muslim. How can you call them communal? I don’t think they are communal”, he said in response to a question posed by a journalist.
Speaking about relief activities, Gogoi said that the number of refugees who had flooded relief camps had reached almost four lakh and admitted that although relief and security apparatus were initially ill prepared to deal with the exodus, systems were in place now.
The Chief Minister said that the death toll due to the violence was presently 45.
