“Why not a single penny for Bengali Literary Organisations in Assam?”: MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha raises question on Assembly floor; Ranoj Pegu responds with facts

During the ongoing Budget Session of the 15th Assam Legislative Assembly today, the Member of Legislative Assembly from North Karimganj raised serious questions on the floor of the house. MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha has questioned the Assam Government on why not a single Bengali Literary Body or Bengali Sahitya Sabha were brought under the corpus fund scheme of the state government.

Purkayastha in Friday’s session said, “This year’s budget has assigned 28.80 crore rupees to 21 khilonjia associations of Assam. In the last financial year, in 2019-20, twenty two such organisations were granted funds worth rupees 73 crores from the corpus fund. Similarly, in 2020-21, 43 crores were assigned to twenty-one Khilonjia organisations again. On February 7, 2020, I asked to the then Finance Minister why no Bengali Sahitya Sabha or Organisation was brought under the corpus fund scheme even after being the second largest linguistic group in Assam. The ex Finance Minister and present Chief Minister of Assam said, if we apply for the same properly, they would assign the fund within 10 days. I myself went to apply for the funds and handed over the documents to then Chief Minister, Sarbananda Sonwal. But so far not a single penny has been assigned in the name of any Bengali organisation even after the new budget was passed by this house.”

The opposition MLA further said addressing the speaker, “I’ve five questions today, my first question is who are the beneficiaries of this fund money? Before elections, the government plays the religious card but after the election, it changes to Khilonjia. When the government can’t define the term Khilonjia, who are the ones getting the money? My second question is, what is the message the government wants to pass on to the Bengali residents of Assam? Is it that they will release funds after every budget but not for Bengalis? My third question to the government is that, if the government doesn’t want to assign funds to Bengali organisations then why is the government not coming out and making a statement?”

“My fourth question is that if the Language Circular Law’s Section 7(b) states that there shall be no discrimination while distributing funds, but where is that commitment of the Assembly today? Do the Bengalis reside within Assam without paying taxes? My last question to the house today is, Annual Grants was earlier fixed at 4 lakhs, now it has been reduced down to 3 lakhs and out of that, only 1.5 lakhs has been released so far. Is this your Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas? Even after being the second largest linguistic community of Assam, not a single amount has been spent or assigned to Bengali Sahitya Sabha or Linguistic Organisations. Where are the promises made before elections today? Is it only sanatani and unity of all before the elections?”, he further added.

Concluding his address, the MLA said, “The present government is not at all concerned about the Bengalis and their problems, it’s just propaganda.” and introduced the house to a book “Obhibashon: Nagorik o Assam” which he said has the chronicles of Bengali community’s miseries in Assam. The Member has presented a copy of the book to the Speaker of the house and urged everyone to go through it.

In response to the Congress MLA Purakayastha’s question, Dr. Ranoj Pegu, the Cabinet Minister for Education and Welfare of Plain Tribe and Backward Classes said, “During the tenure of the previous government, the Bhasha Gaurav Scheme was adopted. Under that scheme, only those linguistic organisations that have state-level bodies and only state-level Sahitya Sabhas would be sanctioned amounts in the form of a corpus fund. But, then Barak Valley Banga Sahitya o Sanskritik Sammelan is only based out of Barak Valley and isn’t any state-level organisation. Since that scheme had no provision for granting corpus funds to local or regional organisations, that organisation didn’t receive any amount under the corpus fund. The same organization was given sanctions of 1.5 lakh rupees in 2020-21 and 2021-22. If the said organisation becomes a state-level body in the future Assam Government will assign funds in their name”.