SILCHAR, July 27 - At a time when an inter-ministerial Central team visited the flood-affected areas of Cachar district, people of Roypur village under Borkhola constituency expressed dissatisfaction over the government�s apathy to repair the one-kilometre-long embankment.
Disgusted with the abysmal condition of the village over the past 30 years, Rukan Ahmed, a resident of the village said, �We have been suffering from great difficulties since the past three decades and all the illusory promises of the governments have utterly failed to give us reasons to smile. The breaches in the one-km-long embankment remained unattended affecting over 20 villages and more than 30,000 people here. We have great expectations from Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. If he can grant funds for Majuli, we hope that he will sanction funds for people of Roypur as well.�
Locals of the area said that Roypur is known to be a fertile land for vegetable cultivation. But due to continuous inundation during monsoon since 1985, a major portion of agricultural land gets submerged leaving the cultivators helpless.
Meanwhile, the Central team, which included Sanjay Kumar, director NE States of NITI Ayog, AL Waghmare, director (DSD), Agriculture and Co-operation, Department of Sugarcane Development, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, BK Das, executive engineer, PWD, Assam and Rajesh Dutta, engineering consultant, ASDMA, Government of Assam along with Cachar Deputy Commissioner S Vishwanathan and officials of other departments, inspected several flood-affected areas, mainly in Silchar Sadar Revenue Circle and Katigorah circle of Cachar district and assessed breaches in embankments and dykes, damaged roads, damaged water supply schemes etc.
In Silchar Sadar Revenue Circle, the team visited areas including Roypur, Peladohor and a few others while under Katigorah circle, the team visited areas including Gonirgram, Kinnarkhal and Rajtilla.
Later in a meeting, the Cachar district administration has submitted a memorandum to the inspection team urging for a financial aid of Rs 145 crore for restoration of the affected and damaged entities. In a release issued to the media, it has been mentioned that the flood caused major damage in sectors like water resource, agriculture, horticulture, roads and bridges, power supply, road communication, fisheries and others.
As per reports of Department of Water Resources, 14 sluice gates and 47 dykes were damaged due to flood causing a loss of more than Rs 3.5 crore. A total of 37 roads with stretches of 45.460 kilometres were submerged and damaged and Rs 4.61 crore is required for reconstruction.
Agriculture is one of the most affected sectors and as per the reports of the department, more than 300 hectares of cultivable land came under flood waters affecting 2530 families and the estimated loss is Rs 20 lakh. More than 80 villages across 28 GPs in the district were flooded destroying large number of paddy and other crops. Katigorah, Silchar and Sonai are among the most affected areas. Department of Fisheries has estimated a loss of Rs 35,54, 400. It may be mentioned that the team will submit a report to the State government on July 28.
