The agitating All Assam Students' Union leaders in the company of editors from a section of local media submitted a memorandum to Governor J B Patnaik at the Raj Bhawan demanding cancellation of the land pact to prevent 'handover of Assam's land'.
The AASU and the two main opposition political parties -- Asom Gana Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party -- have been crying foul against the land pact terming it a deal to handover Assam's land to Bangladesh by the government without bothering to consult the people of Assam.
They have Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and the PM of betraying the people of Assam.
The BJP has stated that Assam government as well as the government should have pressurised Bangladesh for repatriation of 'lakhs of Bangladeshi citizens' who have infiltrated into Assam through the porous border over the years.
Gogoi who was in the PM's entourage to Dhaka, however maintains that the pact would be beneficial as the state will gain 1,024 acres of disputed border land as against 357 acres to be gained by Bangladesh.
The AASU alleged Tarun Gogoi led Congress government as well as the government had no right to hand over land to Bangladesh without consulting the people of Assam and discussing the matter in the state Assembly.
"The protest should have been in border areas, but it is gaining ground in faraway urban centers. There are some groups and parties who are into the habit of raising protest against whatever Congress government does for the betterment of the state," said Dr Himanta Bishwa Sharma, spokesman, Assam government.
Sharma said there was no question of giving away Assam's land as the India-Bangladesh land pact was aimed at resolving the border dispute between the two countries.
The pact would now facilitate sealing the border through construction of barbed wire fence along the unfenced portion of the border and that would also help check infiltration from Bangladesh to great extent.
"In the light of land pact we are set to gain much of what we had lost economically after the Partition," he said. The land pact with Bangladesh will be validated only when both houses of the Parliament ratify it.
Image: Members of All Assam Students Union along with AGP, BJP, CPM and other various organisations at the protest rally
