Mahanta demands Gogoi resignation

"Gogoi should resign owing responsibility for the unprecedented power crisis and rise in prices of essentials which have hit hard the common people," Mahanta, himself a two-time chief minister, said in a statement here today.

"The last 11 years of Congress rule has been characterised by total chaos and misrule ...Blackmarkeeters in connivance with the administration are having a field day while the common man continues to languish," he said and urged the government to initiate the required measures to tackle the twin problems.

The influential All Assam Students Union too criticised the government for remaining a `mute spectator` to the `unprecedented` price rise and power crisis. The student body said in a statement that it will conduct a survey of the difference in prices of essentials by visiting households in different areas of the state from May 14.

Breakdown of two transmission towers due to storm in north Bengal, which supplies power to the state, has triggered the power crisis resulting in power cuts of nearly 15 hours a day in most parts of the state.