DIBRUGARH, July 21 - That the revenue department in Assam has been steamrolled by corruption came up for lengthy discussion at today�s meeting of the Dibrugarh Nagarik Sangha (DNS), chaired by working president Jogendra Nath Borah. The Sangha has demanded of the State government for honest and efficient personnel to man the revenue-related matters in Assam.
Taking part in the deliberations, senior members of the Sangha and the Dibrugarh Bar Association, including Ron Duarah, Satyabrata Sarmah, Krishna Jyoti Baruah, Tariq Rahman and others said the revenue-related functioning in the DC offices of the State leaves much to be desired. While corruption has become the order of the day, chaos and inefficiency have become the other cornerstones.
Sarmah said this is especially so in the districts, where land acquisition is taking place in the name of road and industry development.
In the Dibrugarh DC�s office, revenue-related corruption has reached all-time high levels, and repeated complaints to the Governor, the Chief Minister, and the Chief Secretary by civil society groups have yielded no result. The Nagarik Sangha has noted this with alarm.
Today, the Sangha adopted a resolution stating that only senior Additional Deputy Commissioners, who are well versed in revenue laws and rules, have a clean image and known to be non-corrupt, should be given charge of the revenue department in the districts. The Sangha also stated that revenue matters like acquisition and revenue administration and settlement should be bifurcated.
By another resolution, the Sangha has requested the Central Government to upgrade the Assam Medical College and Hospital here to a full-fledged Central Medical University. The Sangha felt that the AMCH, which in itself a pioneering medical institution of the country, has been denied its due upgradation all these years. Initially founded in 1896, the then Berry White Medical School became the AMCH in 1947. A lawyer of the city, Gonesh Gohain Phukan, has been regularly corresponding with successive Prime Ministers since 1987 for upgrading the AMCH to a superspecialty postgraduate medical institution. The demand was duly taken up by the Sangha in 1990. Former PM Dr Manmohan Singh had almost given the go-ahead for the project, but it became stalled as the then Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta vetoed the move.
However, the Nagarik Sangha is hopeful that the present PM and CM would not block the due upgradation of the AMCH.
