Amit Shah to visit Assam on August 29 to inaugurate newly constructed Raj Bhavan

Guwahati, Aug 1 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah will visit Assam on August 29 to inaugurate the newly constructed Raj Bhavan, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday.

After inaugurating the new Raj Bhavan, he will attend a convention of the newly elected NDA panchayat members, who will also be felicitated at the programme, Sarma said.

In the evening, he will launch the birth centenary celebrations of Assam's first non-Congress chief minister, Golap Borbora, before leaving for New Delhi.

Borbora was arrested in 1975 during Emergency for opposing the then Indira Gandhi government and he spent 18 months in Tihar Jail.

He became the state unit president of the Janata Party in 1977 after his release from Tihar Jail and led the party to victory with 53 seats and was unanimously elected the first non-Congress chief minister of Assam in 1978 but his government lasted for only 18 months.

He was also a Rajya Sabha member from 1968 to 1974.

Sarma said that the Union home minister, who is also the cooperation minister, will also launch a scheme at the panchayat convention to set up a cooperative society in each panchayat.

Shah will inspire the youth to set up cooperatives and take up dairy and agricultural activities on vacant lands, he said.

The societies can rent the vacant land from the government at a token amount and carry on with these activities, Sarma added.

''Encroachers usually settle on vacant land, so we are encouraging the setting up of cooperative societies for productive activities,'' the CM added. PTI DG SOM DG ACD