SILCHAR, Oct 6 - The legacy bearing the picturesque ruins of the Dimasa kingdom at Khaspur will be given a major facelift in the days to come.
As a part of the clean and green village initiative taken up by the State Government, Khaspur, located some 20 kms from Silchar is the only village in the district to be chosen for conversion into a �Green Village�.
A team of officials, including Himalay Sarma, Jhulan Karishna Mahanta from Assam�s My GOV which runs under the direct supervision of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal organised a meeting in association with the district administration and PHE Division-II in the premise of Khaspur Rajbari on Friday to collect opinions and take stock of the hurdles faced by the villagers. Audio visual clips of messages by the Chief Minister regarding cleanliness and plantation were disseminated to the villagers via video projection in the meeting.
�We are very happy that the Government has selected this village which bears a rich and royal legacy of yesteryears to become a green village. The location is loaded with potential to become a tourism hub in the region. But the opportunities have largely been ignored.
The campus which houses the ruins of the Dimasa palace has no concrete fencing, which allows easy thoroughfare for miscreants to misuse and desecrate the place. But we are happy to see such a positive step for our village,� said Ram Ranjan Barman, president of Khaspur Dimasa Royal Capital Protection Committee.
On the other hand, local villagers Ratna Chasha and Anil Kol informed the visiting officials: �We do not have provision for safe drinking water, the housing benefits have been improperly allocated and lack of sufficient toilets has multiplied our woes.�
The villagers, including students added that the new Public Health Centre is running without doctor since the past six months.
Responding to issues raised by the people before the team from Assam My GOV which will take back the observations and questions back to Chief Minister in recorded format, Cachar Deputy Commissioner Dr S Laxmanan said, �all the points have been noted down and action would be taken on a priority basis so that we can transform this village into a green village in the district.�
However, he was quick to add that despite having a community toilet, if people chose to defecate in the open, then the effort would go waste. He informed that Divisional Forest Officer Sunny Deo Choudhury who also attended the meeting will assist in the plantation drive and around 25 job-card holders would be engaged in the plantation process under National Resource Management.
While the drainage problems would be solved under MGNREGA, filing up of the vacant post of a doctor shall be taken care of by Dr SJ Das, Joint Director of Health Services, the Deputy Commissioner maintained. He assured that at least two teachers can be arranged from nearby schools to fill up the gap at Morley HS School wherein 13 posts are lying vacant out of 29 sanctioned posts of teachers.
Meanwhile, Anand Khatoniar, the brand ambassador from the Department of Forests and Environment of the State Government, widely known for his plantation strategies, urged upon the local villagers to understand the need for keeping the environment clean and green and cooperate with the Government to achieve the results.
The CEO of Cachar Zilla Parishad Madhumita Choudhury, Jaydeb Nath, Superintending Engineer of PHE Cachar, Paulami Chakraborty from Swachha Bharat Mission (Grameen) Ashok Bijoy Das, Assistant Executive Engineer of PHE Division� II, Debdulal Das, Assistant Executive Engineer of PHE under Lakhipur sub-division also attended the meeting.
