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Kuruwa in Darrang district hit by severe erosion

By MAYUKH GOSWAMI

MANGALDAI, April 26 - Kuruwa village, which is located on the southern border of Sipajhar Assembly constituency of Darrang district and is endowed with objects of historical and tourism importance, is facing serious threat of erosion by the mighty Red River following onset of the rainy season.

According to the locals, since the beginning of this year�s rainfall, land erosion at Opar Kuruwa has turned so severe that nearly 100 bighas of land along with a variety of valuable trees and plants in the courtyards of around 150 families have already been lost to unabated erosion.

Growing incidents of erosion is also causing threat to the very existence of the main embankment from Kuruwa to Bhati Kuruwa, which has been protecting several local public institutions, including Kuruwa State Dispensary, Kuruwa HS School, Sri Sankardev Naamghar, A Ananda Ram Barua Library, weaving centre and Anganwadi Centre, besides business and residential establishments since a long time.

�The river is now flowing just 56 feet away from the main embankment, and if it is breached, then the whole of Opar Kuruwa village will be wiped out too, observed Rajiv Das, a prominent local person and a teacher by profession.

Just before onset of the summer season, the Water Resource Department had placed a few hundred porcupines under the annual Maintenance and Repairing (M & R) head as a temporary protective measure. But since then, the Department has miserably failed to take any permanent protective measure.

Just at a time when the department was about to start a major protection work at an estimated cost of Rs 2.20 crore, the Model Code of Conduct of the Lok Sabha election stood as a barrier. The tender process of the project amounting to Rs 2.20 crore sponsored by NABARD for the protection work covering a length of 6,600 metres was completed on March 11, but the work order could not be issued due to the Model Code of Conduct.

Necessary correspondence with the State Election Department for granting special approval was made by the department as well as by the Deputy Commissioner. However, no response from the Election Commission was forthcoming till date, opined Debo Kumar Bora, Executive Engineer of Mangaldai Water Resource Division while talking to this Correspondent on Wednesday.

Incidentally, severe land erosion began just after the celebration of Namami Brahmaputra festival by the district administration in that village from March 31 to April 4 in 2017. Since then, nearly 1,000 bighas of land in the village, including more than 100 bighas of the festival venue have been lost to unabated erosion.

In the meantime, several senior Government officials and senior public leaders, including Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Dass and Sipajhar legislator Binanda Kumar Saikia have visited the site, though the above have failed to evince any positive result till date.

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