Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said that he was looking into the possibility of restricting students who graduate from the University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya, from competing for posts in the state government, The Indian Express reported.
The private university in the Ri Bhoi district in the neighbouring state is operated by a educational foundation owned by Mahbubul Hoque, a Bengali-origin Muslim from Assam’s Karimganj district.
Sarma’s comment on Wednesday came in the backdrop of his claims earlier this month that the university was responsible for the flash floods in Guwahati on August 5.
He alleged that the campus was built by cutting trees and destroying hills in the adjacent Ri Bhoi district, which triggered floods in the city. The chief minister accused the university of waging a “flood jihad”.
The hills of Meghalaya in the Ri Bhoi district slope into Guwahati. The campus is about six kilometres from the outskirts of Guwahati.
On Wednesday, Sarma said that the students who graduated from the University of Science and Technology received a certificate from another state, The Indian Express reported.
“Our students from Guwahati and Dibrugarh University are suffering because of this [them applying for government posts in Assam],” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “That’s why I have asked the legal department to examine this – that if students from USTM [University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya] want a job in Assam, they will have to give another exam.”
He added: “Not just USTM but from West Bengal, Karnataka, Maharashtra, all outside universities. But my anger against USTM is a little more. Because they are throwing water at us.”
Also read: Why residents of Assam capital are not buying the chief minister’s claim of ‘flood jihad’
Sarma said that he had also raised concerns with Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma about the rainwater run-off from his state contributing to the floods in Guwahati.
“An expert committee from the Netherlands has been given the task here [to divert water to Deepor Beel lake],” he said, adding that experts from the Indian Institute of Technologies in Roorkee and Guwahati would be roped in to look into the matter.
“Conrad Sangma has also proposed to set up a joint committee between the governments of Meghalaya and Assam to discuss the issue of water coming from Jorabat,” he said. “Although many political leaders in Assam started saving USTM, the Meghalaya government has not saved USTM.”
Also read: How communal rumours hid the truth about the deluge in Assam’s Silchar