BARPETA Feb 24 - The All Barpeta District Students� Union has urged the Prime Minister to put Barpeta on the rail and NH map of India.
In a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister through the Deputy Commissioner of Barpeta district on Tuesday morning, the district leadership of the AASU rued the pathetic condition of communication in the district in the absence of a rail link to the age-old town.
The memorandum signed by Krishna Kanta Das and Samudra Patgiri, president and secretary respectively of the district committee of AASU stated that Barpeta district of Assam with an alluvial landscape of 2677.33 square km contains the divine footprints of Dakpurush, the first Assamese poet of the eighth century. Srimanta Sankardev, Madhabdev, Damodardev and Haridev, the neo-Vaishnavite spiritual and religious preachers and social reformers together with their disciples established as many as 85 satras in the district. Besides, the district is also home to 20 historical monuments and a number of naamghars.
The district has produced a number of famous personalities, including the first Indian prose writer Bhattadev, the inventor of the vacuum brake in the Indian Railways and the first IRS officer, Colonel Guru Prasad Das, political luminaries like the fifth President of India, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and the ex-Governor of Punjab, Mahendra Mohan Choudhury.
The meorandum lamented that in spite of its rich heritage on the socio-cultural-intelluctal fronts, Barpeta has been neglected by both the State and the Central Governments since independence. As a result, this district is still lagging behind on all fronts of development, especially rail and road connectivity. Lack of development in respect of industrial, infrastructural development, rail, highway and air connectivity network is a matter of concern in the present age.
It stated that there is only 47 km of rail line in the entire district and the distance of the line from Barpeta is 25 km.
The AASU leaders reminded the Prime Minister that the Railway Ministry had already conducted a survey for a proposed rail line in the district connecting Barpeta and an amount of Rs 70 lakh has been spent in the survey. The survey report was submitted to the Government in 2010-11 and it is pending with the Railway Ministry since then.
But it is a matter of regret that there is no end in sight to implement the proposal. As a result, the people of Barpeta apprehend another deprivation from rail connectivity. They urged the Prime Minister to connect Barpeta with the rail line which will fulfill a long-standing demand of the people.
In an earlier memorandum, the AASU leaders had informed the Prime Minister that the road communication in the district is horrible.They stated that there was an urgent need to connect Barpeta with four-lane highway to make the town a centre of culture, religion and tourism. They expected that the �dynamic� and �popular� Prime Minister of the country will consider the genuine problems and demands of the district seriously and act positively.
