Rope in ULFA's Paresh Barua for dialogue: PC

Union Home Minster P Chidambaram on Friday said that anti-talk faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom led by its 'military chief' Paresh Baruah should be roped in for negotiations.

"Paresh Barua is neither in Bangladesh nor Myanmar and we in the government seriously do not know where he is. But he should be in the peace process," he told mediapersons at the state Congress headquarters in Guwahati.

"I urge the people of Assam to vote for peace as the peace process initiated by the Congress government of Tarun Gogoi has yielded positive results," he said.

The home minister claimed that there had been a dramatic turnaround in the law-and-order situation in Assam and almost every insurgent faction is in the negotiation mode. "This is encouraging and the peace process should not be interrupted. The greatest satisfaction is that there has been a decline in violence of late," he said, adding that the ULFA pro-talk faction under the group's 'chairman' Arabinda Rajkhowa has already held a preliminary round of talks with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

Complimenting the government for all round development in the state, he said that during the erstwhile Asom Gana Parishad regime the exchequer was nil.

"The state has made substantial gains in terms of financial development and the state government employees are getting salaries on time. Assam is on the development path and is the fastest growing state in the country. I congratulate the Tarun Gogoi government for this," he said.

The party hoped to emerge as the single largest majority party in Assam and form the next government, he said. On the issue of corruption raised by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and AGP, he said in the event of Congress returning to power it would ask the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe all financial scandals of the state.