MIRZA, Dec 13 � The South Kamrup Erosion Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (SKEPSS) has urged the Assam Water Resources Department not to evict the landless families affected by floods and erosion who are living on the Palasbari-Gumi embankment in Kamrup district in the name of implementing a Central Government-aided project on raising and strengthening the same embankment.
Officials of the SKEPSS told this correspondent that over 1,500 flood and erosion-affected landless families have been residing on different segments of the Palasbari-Gumi embankment at Futuri, Simina, Guimara, Kondolpara, Baniapara, Jahirpur and Aliksh villages under the Palasbari and Chhaygaon LACs since the past 20-40 years, and that the State Government has failed to rehabilitate the flood-hit families living on the embankment.
�We will launch a massive agitation which will include the blockade of the NH-37 and the Guwahati-Jogighopa Railway Line, besides the gheraoing of the Palasbari Revenue Circle Office in protest against the eviction of landless families living on the Palasbari-Gumi embankment. We also demand a permanent solution to the flood and erosion problem in South Kamrup,� said Rojonji Saloi, secretary of the SKEPSS.
It may be mentioned here that the Assam Water Resources Department (Palasbari-Gumi Project Water Resources Division) is going to implement a project amounting to Rs 22.69 crore for raising and strengthening the 21-km Palasbari-Gumi embankment in Kamrup district. Official sources said that the project was sanctioned by the Central Government under its Flood Management Programme with 70 per cent of the funds to be provided by the Central Government and the remaining 30 per cent to be provided by the Assam Government.
According to Rajani Saloi, secretary, SKEPSS, the Palasbari-Gumi Project Water Resources Division has formulated the project without considering the rehabilitation of the landless families residing on the Palasbari-Gumi embankment and the Palasbari -Gumi Water Resources Division of the Assam Water Resources Department is going to execute the project on raising and strengthening the Palasbari-Gumi embankment by evicting the 1500-odd flood-hit landless families.
Villagers told this correspondent that the landless families had shifted to the Palasbari-Gumi embankment at different periods. The first set of landless families had shifted their homes to the embankment in 1969 after their land was eroded by the Brahmaputra river. The second and subsequent sets of landless families shifted their homes to the embankment in the subsequent years and the last set of families came to the embankment in 1998. Thus, all the landless families living along the Palasbari-Gumi embankment have been leading a miserable life on the embankment for the last many years and they have not been rehabilitated till date by the authorities concerned.
�We submitted several memoranda to the then President of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, and Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh, besides Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi earlier, but nobody has paid any heed to our pleas. We also launched an NH-37 blockade in 2004, but have failed to get any rehabilitation till date. Now, the Government has devised a policy to finish us en masse by destroying our homes,� said Rahim Ali, an embankment dweller of Futuri village under the Palasbari LAC.
Another embankment dweller, Sahera Bibi (40), a widow, feels that the embankment is their permanent home and if they are forcefully evicted, they will fight back vehemently against the move.
The president of the SKEPSS, Jayanta Kalita said that they would never allow the Palasbari-Gumi Project Water Resources Division to implement the Rs 22.69-crore project for raising and strengthening the embankment by evicting the flood-ravaged landless families as the project does not have any importance for them.
�The Palasbari-Gumi embankment is in good condition and there is no necessity to raise and strengthen the embankment and the Palasbari-Gumi Project Water Resources Division, Mirza, is going to execute this project only to siphon off the money. The flood and erosion-affected people will not gain from the project. The Palasbari-Gumi Project Water Resources Division should have implemented this project along the bank of the Brahmaputra itself instead of raising and strengthening the embankment,� said Jayanta Kalita.
Meanwhile, the Executive Engineer of Palasbari Project (Water Resources) Division, Mirza, Rai Baruah said that they would launch the Rs 22.69-crore project on raising and strengthening the 21-km Palasbari-Gumi embankment very soon and the tender for the project has been completed and at present, the allotment of work to contractors is under way. �If the public does not allow us to implement the project, the project will be stalled for an indefinite time,� he said.