ULFA Extorts As Gogoi Fiddles

After lying low following mass desertions and intensifiedcounter-insurgency operations in the past couple of years, the banned UnitedLiberation Front of Asom (ULFA), has launched a fresh drive to collect moneyand revitalise the outfit.

Accordingly, several extortion notices have been served on proprietorial tea-gardens, businessmen and professionals in the past few weeks. Taking advantageof the transition period of the change of Government in the state,a number of ULFA militants have entered the state from their camps in Bhutan and neighbouring states. In the past two weeks, the militants have attacked security forces in different parts of the state.

Police sources say that the outfit has also launched a recruitment driveand according to information available, a number of youths from Nalbari,Barpeta and Upper Assam districts have joined the outfit.Intelligence sources here reveal that most of the businessmen andprofessionals, who have received extortion notes, were not too willing toreport to the police.

However, some of the notices that the police have beenable to lay their hands on, suggests that the ULFA is in a serious financialcrunch. The note to a tea garden says the outfit needs an amount Rs 25 lakhfrom the tea estate and that it was for the first time the organisation wasseeking help from the estate. "We pray that your tea estate will do theneedful so that the organisation move forward for achievement of the goal,"the notice said.

In another extortion notice issued to a businessman in Sivasagar district,the Rongpur Anchalik Parishad of the ULFA demanded an amount of Rs 50 lakhand said that the person should not resort to any unscrupulous mean and makethe payment within June 10.

Police sources admitted that the noticesrecovered by the security forces were only a tip of the iceberg as a numberof businessmen even in Guwahati city have received extortion notices fromthe ULFA.

The ULFA drive has come at a time when Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoihas started putting his own men in key administrative positions in thestate. Last week, he reshuffled 29 senior IPS officials, easing out thoseseen as close to the previous regime to insignificant or distant posts.Three days before the police officials' changes, Gogoi had moved around18 senior IAS officers.

Among the most significant changes was the shifting of GM Srivastava, sofar the additional Director General (operations) to ADG (training and armed Police). Srivastva, a go-getter, had become controversial in the stateafter he adopted the policy of using surrendered militants to strike at thefamily members of the underground elements in order to bring the militantoutfits under control. Srivastava, who is close to Assam governor SK Sinha,was virtually running the state police although he was junior to DG police.

Srivastava's exit has also meant that the post of ADGP (operations) hasnow been abolished. Instead, an IGP level officer, BP Rao will look afterthe law and order department. Another major change is the transfer ofGuwahati City Superintendent of Police GP Singh to lower Assam's Barpetadistrict.He is being replaced by Paresh Neog who was in Barpeta so far.

Ten otherdistrict police chiefs have been moved around too.Gogoi, who holds the home portfolio, has made it clear that his toppriority would be to give back the police their pre-eminent position in the counter-insurgency operations. Under a unified command system, currently operational in the state, the commander of the Army's 4 Corps heads theOperational Command although at the district level, the respective SPswork in tandem with the battalion commanders.

On Tuesday, Gogoi had reshuffled 18 IAS officers but had stopped shortof replacing PP Verma, Commissioner and secretary to the chief minister,known to be the key man in the previous administration. MGVK Bhanu, an officer junior in years to Verma, but known to be close to the Congress party,is widely tipped to be Verma's replacement. Bhanu is currently on a central deputation.

The new Congress dispensation has however refrained from changingofficers right at the top. Neither Chief secretary PK Bora nor DGP HK Deka hasbeenchanged.