Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday urged the people to erase all remnants of colonial legacy and work together to build an ‘atma nirbhar’ nation.

He appealed to the people of Assam to pledge to create a movement encompassing all sectors, from agriculture to Information Technology (IT), so that the state can achieve economic self-sufficiency.

Addressing a meeting at Gohpur in Sonitpur district to mark the birth centenary of freedom fighter Kanaklata Barua, Sarma said, “As India moves towards 100 years of independence, we must all work together to dismantle all remnants of our colonial legacy. We must work together for creating an ‘atma nirbhar Bharat’ economically”.

Seventeen-year-old Kanaklata was shot dead by the police during the Quit India Movement in 1942 while leading a group to hoist the Tricolour on the Gohpur police station premises.

Sarma maintained that the current regime in New Delhi, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, has been working to do away with the colonial legacy.

He cited replacing the colonial era criminal justice laws with new acts, shifting to the new Parliament building and renaming of roads as instances where Modi and Shah have shown how the country is coming out of the colonial legacies.

“All remnants of colonial rule have to be erased and replaced with an atma nirbhar Bharat”, the CM added.

“India won’t build its economy based on imported products, but will develop its own capabilities to create its own legacy,” the he asserted.

Paying tributes to the memory of freedom fighters like Kanaklata and others, Sarma maintained that though the political freedom they had strived for has been achieved, economic freedom is yet to materialise.

He underlined the importance Mahatma Gandhi had laid on both political and economic freedom and exhorted the people of the state to work for it.

“Assam has to get rice, lentils, potatoes, onions from outside. When prices of potatoes and onions are increased by some traders outside the state, we carry out agitations here. But we don’t take to growing these on our own land,” he said.

He urged the people not to create ‘movement of protests and agitations’ but a movement of boosting own production and capabilities in all sectors, ranging from agriculture to IT.