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The Assam government has made its intention clear in no uncertain terms by arresting the states DIG Hiranya Kumar Bhattacharya under the National Security Act. Bhattacharya is an alleged sympathiser of the agitation on the foreigners issue. Professor Lakhinandan Bora of the Assam Agricultural University was also arrested under the NSA. Oil supplies from the state to the refinery in Barauni in Bihar have resumed. The developments signal that the hardliners in the Union cabinet on the Assam issue have won at a time when the resumption of talks between the agitators and the Centre was looking imminent. While resumption of oil supplies was always on the cards, the arrests, especially that of Bhattacharya. took everyone by surprise. The DIG, who is on leave, has apparently been taken to Ranchi.

Congress Leader

Laxmi Narain Induria, general secretary of Madhya Pradesh Congress (I), has been sacked. Induria belongs to the Vidya Charan Shukla group, which has been complaining to the Centre against Chief Minister Arjun Singh. He along with several other MLAs and MPs from Madhya Pradesh have been camping in Delhi to seek a meeting with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Asiad Woes

The cost of the Asian Games may soar to Rs 700 crore taking into account the cost of flyovers, hotels, roads, railway lines. A hush-hush government study has revealed that the work on the main stadia is running behind schedule and theres a possibility that the games could be postponed by a year. Opposition parties are not too happy about holding the games in Delhi, but they dont want to appear churlish by starting an agitation. The Lok Dal, however, is determined to protest against the games. When the Janata government approved the Asian Games proposal, the estimated cost was around Rs 250 crore.

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January 30, 1981, Forty Years Ago: Assam DIG arrested - The Indian Express