JORHAT, May 10 - Barely at a distance of 20 metres away from the busiest area of Neamatighat, the major protection work done by the Water Resource Department is facing a serious threat for the past few days, as the anchors of the goods-carrying boats tore countless numbers of geo-bags under water during nights. The geo-bags are used to protect the entire river-port from massive erosion by the Brahmaputra.
As several boatmen of goods-carrying boats are yet to be trained and guided properly by the authority concerned, namely, Inland Water Transport (IWT) of the Department of Transport, the untrained boatmen are seen anchoring their ferries mainly on the geo-bags on a regular basis at night.
As the sharp-edged anchors tore the geo-bags, the mega-protection work is suspected to be losing its original strength technically to withstand the monsoon waters of the mighty river.
�Besides the anchors, the fans of the engines of several goods-carrying boats damaged the bags under water. Anchoring of boats on the geo-bags of the protection work caused serious problem in this area,� said Sudhir Kumar Das, executive engineer of the Upper Assam Investigation Division of the State Water Resource Department.
Das said that they have requested most of the boatmen not to damage the geo-bags, which have been protecting Neamatighat for the last two years.
He, however, said that the passenger boats of the department concerned followed all the guidelines to ensure safety of the mega-protection work, which has a length of one kilometre from Afalamukh ghat to the western portion of Neamatighat.
As the department�s officials and contractors had done the protection work properly in the Neamatighat area, no incident of erosion has been reported for the last one year in the protection work.
Jorhat Deputy Commissioner Solanki Vishal Vasant was most recently informed about the matter so that he takes proper initiatives to prevent the damage of the protection work. The Deputy Commissioner has directed the IWT officials to take up measures for solving the problem.
Besides the officials of the Water Resource Department, several sensitive citizens of Majuli and Jorhat also opined that administration should monitor the violation of rules by the untrained boatmen at Neamatighat, which faced massive erosion till the protection work was done properly.
It may be mentioned that several crores rupees of public money were spent for the entire protection work of the area.
Locals said that the entire protection work will deteriorate during the monsoon floods if no preventive measure is taken up immediately by the administration.
�Deployment of security personnel is the need of the hour to check violation of rules. If the protection work is further damaged through anchoring of those boats, people of Jorhat will have to face the consequences. Officers of the district administration and Inland Water Transport Department should take immediate steps to prevent the damage,� said a senior citizen of Jorhat.
JORHAT, May 10 - Barely at a distance of 20 metres away from the busiest area of Neamatighat, the major protection work done by the Water Resource Department is facing a serious threat for the past few days, as the anchors of the goods-carrying boats tore countless numbers of geo-bags under water during nights. The geo-bags are used to protect the entire river-port from massive erosion by the Brahmaputra.
As several boatmen of goods-carrying boats are yet to be trained and guided properly by the authority concerned, namely, Inland Water Transport (IWT) of the Department of Transport, the untrained boatmen are seen anchoring their ferries mainly on the geo-bags on a regular basis at night.
As the sharp-edged anchors tore the geo-bags, the mega-protection work is suspected to be losing its original strength technically to withstand the monsoon waters of the mighty river.
�Besides the anchors, the fans of the engines of several goods-carrying boats damaged the bags under water. Anchoring of boats on the geo-bags of the protection work caused serious problem in this area,� said Sudhir Kumar Das, executive engineer of the Upper Assam Investigation Division of the State Water Resource Department.
Das said that they have requested most of the boatmen not to damage the geo-bags, which have been protecting Neamatighat for the last two years.
He, however, said that the passenger boats of the department concerned followed all the guidelines to ensure safety of the mega-protection work, which has a length of one kilometre from Afalamukh ghat to the western portion of Neamatighat.
As the department�s officials and contractors had done the protection work properly in the Neamatighat area, no incident of erosion has been reported for the last one year in the protection work.
Jorhat Deputy Commissioner Solanki Vishal Vasant was most recently informed about the matter so that he takes proper initiatives to prevent the damage of the protection work. The Deputy Commissioner has directed the IWT officials to take up measures for solving the problem.
Besides the officials of the Water Resource Department, several sensitive citizens of Majuli and Jorhat also opined that administration should monitor the violation of rules by the untrained boatmen at Neamatighat, which faced massive erosion till the protection work was done properly.
It may be mentioned that several crores rupees of public money were spent for the entire protection work of the area.
Locals said that the entire protection work will deteriorate during the monsoon floods if no preventive measure is taken up immediately by the administration.
�Deployment of security personnel is the need of the hour to check violation of rules. If the protection work is further damaged through anchoring of those boats, people of Jorhat will have to face the consequences. Officers of the district administration and Inland Water Transport Department should take immediate steps to prevent the damage,� said a senior citizen of Jorhat.
