[4:13 PM, 11/27/2025] +91 94356 19984: The Assam Assembly was informed by the education minister that close to 1,400 government-run primary and middle schools in the state’s char and rural areas continue to operate without basic drinking water and toilet facilities, exposing glaring infrastructure gaps in the education sector. Additionally, nearly 28,000 teaching positions remain vacant across these regions. Responding to a question raised by Congress MLA Wajed Ali Choudhury during Question Hour, Education Minister Ranoj Pegu said 1,391 Lower Primary (LP) and Middle English (ME) schools currently lack functional drinking water or toilet infrastructure. Of these, 347 schools have no drinking … [4:18 PM, 11/27/2025] +91 94356 19984: Gaurav Gogoi Accuses Assam CM of Attempting to Include Outsiders in Voter List; Seeks Machine-Readable Electoral Rolls Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) President and MP Gaurav Gogoi on November 27 visited Jorhat, where he addressed a press conference at the Congress Bhawan and levelled serious allegations against Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over the ongoing special revision of the electoral roll.
Speaking to the media, Gogoi accused the Chief Minister of “attempting to bring busloads and trainloads of BJP workers from other states and get their names inserted into the Assam voter list.” He claimed the move was aimed at reducing the electoral strength of the indigenous population.
“His sole intention is to weaken the voting power of the Assamese people. He knows that if genuine residents of Assam vote and their votes truly count, he will lose his chair and be answerable to the people,” Gogoi said. The Congress leader further alleged that the ruling BJP is trying to “negate, reduce and ultimately dilute” the vote of local residents by adding names of party workers from outside the state. He urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take immediate note of these concerns ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.
Questioning the credibility of the Election Commission, Gogoi said its reputation “is diminishing day by day in the eyes of the public.” Reiterating Rahul Gandhi’s demand for machine-readable voter lists, he argued that India, a global IT hub, should not be dependent on manual booth-level officers to prepare voter rolls when advanced software solutions are already available.
“It is high time the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, gives a clear answer as to why India still does not have machine-readable voter lists,” Gogoi said. “Why is the Election Commission shying away from adopting technology?”
The APCC President demanded that in the upcoming elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry, the Election Commission must implement machine-readable voter lists to prevent repeated last-minute revisions and alleged fraudulent entries. He pointed out that once voting is conducted, it becomes extremely difficult to detect or prove false names in the rolls. Calling it a “matter of national importance,” Gogoi said safeguarding the integrity of the vote is essential to protecting India’s constitutional democracy. “It is not enough to merely read the oath in the Central Hall; one must uphold it. And the first responsibility is to protect the integrity of the vote,” he added. Gogol concluded his address by strongly urging the Election Commission to adopt machine-readable voter rolls for the upcoming assembly elections to ensure transparency, fairness and public trust in the electoral process.