JORHAT, April 3 - Activists of TMPK (Takam Mising Porin Kebang) along with activists of Tribal Sangha (both Jorhat district units) staged a demonstration today in front of the Jorhat Deputy Commissioner�s office to protest against the failure of the government departments and agencies to tackle large-scale erosion by the Brahmaputra on the north-western outskirts here.
Holding posters, banners, youth activists of TMPK, accompanied by villagers comprising men and women of about 10 villages which have witnessed massive erosion by the mighty river in recent times, shouted slogans against the government, notably against the State Water Resources Minister Keshab Mahanta for not undertaking repair and restoration works of the damaged Brahmaputra embankment in north-west Jorhat.
The protesters said that the embankments at Khutiaputa, Rangagora, Kalbari, Laliti, Neol and areas under the Jorhat West Revenue Circle have been severely hit by erosion since the past 17 years with the intensity of erosion increasing in the past six to seven years.
They alleged that last year Keshab Mahanta had given an assurance to the villagers to get the embankments repaired and restored before the arrival of rainy season this year. However, there has been no progress in this regard, they alleged.
The protesters, while flaying the former Congress government for �neglecting� the problem, said several foundation stones of anti-erosion projects were laid during the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government rule, but none of the projects got completed.
�We hoped that the new BJP-led government will give attention to the problem and carry out works to check erosion. But this government too has gone the same way like the Congress,� a TMPK leader stated.
The protesters later submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal through the Jorhat Deputy Commissioner�s office, seeking his intervention to protect the lives and property of people of the villages on the Brahmaputra bank.
They threatened that if the government did not respond to their demand within next 10 days, then the organizations with the support of several other like-minded organizations, will undertake a massive agitational programme.
