AIUDF legislators walked out of the Assam Assembly over the Government’s decision to shut down Madrassa by introducing a bill on the first day of the three-day winter assembly session on Monday.

Assam Cabinet Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma earlier this morning took Twitter saying, “Today I shall introduce a Bill to repeal Provincialisation of Madrassa. Once the Bill is passed, the practice of running Madrassa by the Government in Assam will come to an end, a practice which was started by Muslim League govt in pre-Independence Assam.”

Speaking to media, the leaders of the AIUDF as they walked out of the session demanded the withdrawal of the bill saying, “India is a secular nation and there are no differences between a school and the ‘Madrassa’. The State Government is trying to taking political mileage by using the Arabic wording ‘Madrassa’ and polarize the vote ahead of the assembly elections. The courses and syllabus which are available in the High schools are similar in the Madrassa as well. We demand the education system of the ‘Madrassa’ should remain the same, nevertheless, if the Government wants to modernize the education system by introducing new courses we don’t have any issue with that.”

Meanwhile, the winter session of the Assembly was adjourned for 10 minutes after Congress legislators staged a walkout during the winter session of the Assembly.

Leader of Opposition, Debabrata Saikia alleged that the Government of Assam has failed to resolve the border issues with neighbouring states like Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, etc. “Though they came to power in the state in 2016 making promises to protect the ‘JATI MATI BHETI’ (community, land and hearth), but literally failed to safeguard the people of Assam in the borders. No measures have been taken into consideration, which is very sad,” said Saikia.

“More than 50 times, people from the neighbouring states like Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland has crossed the border and encroached inside the territory of Assam. Shockingly, two people have been killed during a clash in the borders of Assam,” added Saikia.

Saikia further informed that as per the latest data, at least 5 lakh people of Assam both Upper and Lower have become homeless due to soil erosion by the Brahmaputra River. But, no proper schemes have been introduced so far by the Govt of Assam, Saikia claimed.