Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday said that he is ready to go jail, if he is found to be indulging in corrupt practices.
Participating in the India Today Conclave East 2017 in Kolkata which was conducted by consulting editor of India Today Group Rajdeep Sardesai, Sonowal said that, if any minister or even chief minister is found to be indulging in corrupt practices, action will be taken against him.
The Assam CM further said that, accordingly, there has been an intense crackdown on corruption and corrupt functionaries.
Sonowal also said that as a result of his government’s unrelenting war against corruption, a record number of 21.6 per cent growth has been registered in revenue collection in the state in the last one year. He also maintained that no prejudice or favoritism were allowed to creep in, in the government’s tirade against corruption to give people a good governance.
On being asked about his tirade against corruption to make the administration more responsive to development, Sonowal said, “…from the very first day I took over office, I declared a war to weed out corruption from all levels.”
On the ongoing National Register of Citizens (NRC) issue, the Assam CM said that the ongoing NRC updation process has been on under the guidance of the Supreme Court of India and the Government of Assam perceives NRC updation process as its national duty as it is committed to an error free NRC for Assam as per the guidelines of the Apex Court.
On being asked about infrastructural slackness as one the main reasons responsible for creating impediment towards growth, Sonowal said that Assam has been prone to flood since 1951.
“The state gets only six month time to work on its construction activities and as a result quality construction gets delayed. However, the state government has charted out modus operandi to expedite construction activities to complement state’s development,” Sonowal said. He however, said that for the permanent solution of the perennial flood in Assam, the centre under the directive of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has constituted an expert committee with the vice chairman of NITI Aayog as its head to study the overall problem of flood taking into cognizance international reasons contributing to flood in Assam.
