Assam will not be divided, says governor

Diphu: Assam Governor J B Patnaik today today ruled out any division of the state and said the autonomous councils were capable of taking care of development in the districts. “Assam will not be divided. There is no necessity for separate states as all the ethnic groups can be represented in the Autonomous Councils which can take care of the development activities”, Patnaik told reporters when asked about various ethnic groups’ demand for separate states carved out of Assam. [caption id=“attachment_1107561” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  JB Patnaik. PTI. [/caption] Laying emphasis on the Panchayati Raj system for bringing about development at the grassroot level, he said separate states were not needed if more funds and power were given to the districts for their and ethnic groups development. Earlier the Governor inaugurating the academic building of the Assam University Diphu campus here said he would make all efforts for converting the campus at Diphu into full fledged university. The Diphu campus, the second one of the central university, was started in July 2007 with 64 students and today has 370 students enrolled in its nine academic departments, the University sources said. PTI