Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma rolls out Mission Basundhara 3.0 in Guwahati

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma launched Mission Basundhara 3.0 at Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra on Sunday, October 20, sparking a political debate over land rights in the northeastern state.

The initiative aims to grant land rights to indigenous people, a move that has drawn criticism from opposition parties. Addressing the controversy, Sarma said, "The opposition political parties, Congress and AIUDF, criticised us, but we informed them that Mission Basundhara is an initiative to provide land rights to the indigenous people of the state."

In addition to land rights, the government introduced Digidoc, a digital directory for non-registrable and optionally registrable documents. This system is expected to streamline services and reduce processing times for citizens.

The launch of Mission Basundhara 3.0 follows two previous iterations of the programme, which began in October 2021. Alongside this initiative, the state government has also expanded its entrepreneurship support program, Chief Minister's Atmanirbhar Asom Abhijan (CMAAA).

CMAAA 2.0, launched on Friday, aims to provide financial assistance to 75,000 aspiring entrepreneurs. Selected beneficiaries will receive up to Rs 5 lakhs for professional course categories and Rs 2 lakhs for non-professional courses.