JAMUGURIHAT, May 13 - Powal Baruah, one of the greatest personalities of Chatiya in the present Biswanath district, a prominent freedom fighter, social worker, intellectual, literatteur and winner of Soviet Land Nehru Award passed away on May 12 at the GMCH due to old-age related ailments. He was 96.
He was a great chronicler of Chatiya and had all information about the place on his finger tips. He was born on September 20, 1932 at Naghariya chuk Chatiya in a middle class family and had his education at No. 9 Metera Gaon Boys LP School, Chatiya High School and Cotton College, Guwahati. After passing BA from Cotton College, he started his teaching career at Narayanpur High School, Lakhimpur, then at Jamuguri High School and Kamrup Academy, Guwahati.
In 1962, leaving his teaching job, he joined Khadi and Village Industries department underwent training at Wardha, Maharashtra and served as Khadi development officer at Diphu and North Cachar and ultimately became the Superintendent of Khadi and Village Industries School, Raha.
He was also a journalist and writer and had translated three books from Russian. He took active part in the freedom movement for which he was jailed for nine months. He was in the freedom fighter�s batch, which went to Chatiya Thana for hoisting the National Flag along with Keshab Mahanta and Biren Borkataki. He came into contact with Communist leader Phani Borah, Manik Hazarika, Hem Sarmah and later on famous Communist leaders Hemanta Ganguli and Amalendu Guha and became a leftist. Later on, he permanently settled at Gandhi Basti, Guwahati. His death has been widely mourned in Chatiya.
