GUWAHATI, Dec 8 - The State Water Resources Department (WRD) has asked all its district offices to monitor the Brahmaputra water quality. WRD Secretary RP Das told this correspondent today that letters have been sent to the district offices of the department for the purpose.
Meanwhile, All Assam Students� Union (AASU) today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use his good office in ascertaining the cause of the unnatural turbidity of the Siang and Brahmaputra waters and to clean these rivers urgently.
The Assam Science Society has urged the Union and the State Governments to solve the mystery of the Siang and Brahmaputra waters turning turbid and to provide alternative drinking water sources to those who are dependent on the waters of these rivers.
Prof Bhagawat Pran Duarah of the Gauhati University Department of Geological Sciences said in a Facebook post, �Is it true that the Upper Siang Project has been under construction in Arunachal Pradesh since 2009 as given in Wikipedia. The statement of Kiren Rijiju (Union Minister of State for Home) is non-serious type and seems might result from our Upper Siang project of NHPC. Government should come up with the true facts whether the dirty water in Siang is due to the act of China or of the Upper Siang project.�
In a statement issued here today jointly by AASU president Dipanka Nath and general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi also alleged that the Union Government has not shown any interest in tackling the problem of unnatural turbidity of the Siang and Brahmaputra water, unlike the initiatives it shows in the case of the Ganga. Again, the State Government has also failed to mount pressure on the Union Government for a justified solution to this problem, they alleged.
They said that the admission of the State Government that the Brahmaputra water is unfit for consumption has made it amply clear that the Brahmaputra pollution has reached a critical stage. The State Government should have been highly active to tackle the issue. It should have arranged for alternative sources to supply drinking water to the people, who are dependent on the Brahmaputra for their drinking water.
The Union Government should send a team of Ministers, including the Water Resources Minister to make an on-the-spot study of the situation, besides the leading scientists and experts. The people of the State have the legitimate right to know as to what is afflicting the Brahmaputra, which is they consider to be their lifeline, said the AASU leaders.
The student leaders have made an appeal to the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) scientists and engineers, hailing from the State, to consult the leading global experts in this connection.
