"Vote for Congress for peace, security, development and modernisation in Assam," said Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on his arrival for a two-day electioneering in the state on Saturday.
Talking to media at the airport in Guwahati, just before embarking on his journey to address election rallies at Mukalmua in Nalbari and Sualkuchi in Kamrup district, Dr Singh made a clarion call to the people of Assam to vote for Congress to be in power in the state for the next five years.
"Congress governments both at the Centre and in the state is the best possible combination for restoration of peace and expedite development in Assam," said, Dr Singh , a Rajya Sabha member of parliament from Assam.
For the 'misguided youths' of the state he said, " You have a prime minister from the state in New Delhi. There is no problem that can't be solved through negotiation. We want peace to prevail in Assam in the interests of development and prosperity of its people."
Regarding the present nascent peace process with the United Liberation Front of Asom, Dr Singh ruled out possibility of having any discusion on the issue of 'sovereignty of Assam.'
He said all the rural infrastructure development projects, employment generation programmes undertaken by the United Progressive Alliance government were made keeping Assam's interests in the mind.
"The Congress government at the Centre is committed to help people of Assam live a life of dignity and self respect," the PM said.
Regarding the problem of illegal migration from Bangladesh, he said, "We are firmly against all sorts of infiltration and have taken positive steps to prevent infiltration accross the border.
The work of border fencing along the Indo-Bangla border is progressing at a good speed while action has been taken to update the national register of citizens of 1951 for detection of illegal migrants in Assam.
"At the same time we want to ensure protection of genuine Indian citizens living in Assam against any sort of harassment during detection and deportation of illegal migrants.
The Foreigners (Tribunals for Assam ) Order, 2006 was formulated for that purpose in the wake of Supreme Court's verdict to repeal the IMDT Act, 1983."
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