Bijoy Krishna Handique

Handique was a senior Member of Parliament from the North Eastern Region and represented the Jorhat Lok Sabha, Assam for six consecutive terms since 1991 to 2009.This led him to eventually establish the Hemlata Handiqui Memorial Institute [HHMI], the first English medium school in Upper Assam, in 1962.The Act gives the Indian Army immunity to arrest without warrant on suspicion, shoot and kill any citizen in areas deemed disturbed by the government, without any recourse to scrutiny.Government deploys the Army to fight the terrorists for the protection of its citizens, but it's the common men and women who are caught in the crossfire and suffer the most...In the 15th Lok Sabha elections, Handique won from the Jorhat constituency for the sixth consecutive term and was promoted to Union Cabinet minister status.He formally took the oath of office as Union Cabinet Minister holding dual charges of Mines and the Development of North East Region (DoNER) portfolios.[12] Handique proposed to make locals –project affected people [PAP]- the stakeholders in the project, and thus remove major impediment in expansion of old or development of new mines.During his tenure, Handique came under pressure to sell off the government's stakes in profitable mining companies like Coal India Ltd and Hindustan Copper Ltd, to private players.[14] Handique proposed a windfall tax on ore exported to raise resources for the people adversely affected by projects.After tendering his resignation as Cabinet Minister, Handique was appointed chairman of the newly constituted parliamentary Standing Committee for Welfare of Other Backward Classes.The 14-member panel, chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is entrusted with the task of selecting party candidates for state and national elections.[24] Sonia Gandhi said of Handique "he was a valued member of the previous UPA governments and the void created by his death will be hard to fill."[citation needed] Handique's debates, speeches & interventions as a Parliamentarian during the last 35 years (including one term in Rajya Sabha) have been recorded in three unedited volumes:[26]