Congress govt failing to provide security to people: AGP

GUWAHATI: With five explosions taking place in Assam in a week, including the one at Paltan Bazar here, Asom Gana Parishad ( AGP) today accused the Congress government of failing on all fronts, specially in providing security to the common people.

The Tarun Gogoi-led state government is a "bigger failure" than the Manmohan Singh's UPA government at the Centre, AGP president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta told reporters here.

"The law and order situation in the state is completely devastated. The government has failed in providing security.

"The Home department is under the Chief Minister. Gogoi has said that the state intelligence got prior information of a possible attack. Despite that, the government has failed to stop the series of blasts," he said.

At least 15 persons were injured, two of them seriously, in a grenade blast yesterday night at busy Paltan Bazar area near the railway station in the city, the fifth such case in the state in a week.

Criticising the government on alleged fake encounter cases in Assam in recent years, Mahanta said the state ranked third as per the Home Ministry's data in respect to it in the last four years. The state has seen 52 such cases during the last four years.

On Centre's food security scheme, he said it is being introduced through the ordinance route to take political mileage before the Lok Sabha elections next year.

"The UPA government is bringing this scheme only to capture votes. The central government has completely lost the confidence of the people," he added.