Baksa district of Assam is known to be one of the backward districts of the state. Ranjan Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Baksa spoke to The Sentinel digital about the priority sectors and how the newly elected Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) and the district administration are working towards putting the district back on the development path. Here are the excerpts from the exclusive interview.
The Sentinel: After COVID and the BTC elections, has the focus now shifted to developmental work in the region?
Ranjan Sharma: Most part of 2020, we were in the middle of COVID and the Model Code of Conduct which was in force for the BTC elections, which were finally held on the 7th of December in Baksa district. The process ended on 12th evening when the counting was done and during this period, we could not start any new developmental activities. Everything was at a standstill and after the elections, which was a very peaceful election, in fact it was even better than elections in general areas, we had to get back to developmental works. The state government's flagship programmes have immediately been started after the elections.
We have started the Orunodoi scheme, under which Rs 10 lakhs per annum is given to eligible female members of the BPL family, usually a widow or a spinster or a separated woman is given the amount and we are supposed to cover 16,000 beneficiaries per legislative assembly constituency. We have called for applications. We will be covering around 48000 beneficiaries in the entire district.
We have also started the 'Namghor scheme' whereby we will be giving Rs 2,50,000 to each Namghar (Vaishnavite temple). Our district has 100 such namghars or bathoumandirs. The Assam Darshan scheme which we initially started before the COVID pandemic and before the election code of conduct was enforced. We had selected 16 mandirs and namghors in the last year 2019-20 whereby the government had sanctioned Rs 10 lakhs for each of these institutions. We are now in the process of releasing the money to them. We will be selecting another 13 such institutions in the current year.
The Assam Adarsha Gram Yojana scheme whereby two model villages in each legislative assembly constituency is selected by the concerned MLA and Rs 50 lakhs is allocated to each model village. The Assam Energy Development Agency which is a government of Assam organization, with support from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Resources, have provided solar street lights to us at 90% subsidy. So, the solar street lights which costs uptoRs 26,000, cost us just Rs 2,600. We have now selected about 30 such street lamps for each model village and these are under installation and implementation. The developmental process is now back on track in Baksa district.
The Sentinel: The Assam government has been talking about setting up law colleges, medical colleges in different parts of Assam. Is Baksa also benefitting?
Ranjan Sharma: The newly elected Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) head PromodBoro and his team have now started interacting with us. Apart from the developmental schemes, the allocation of land for law and medical colleges have been discussed. These are coming up in the Tamulpur area. We were also talking about the administrative staff college. We would like to have one such in our district, and these are some of the schemes announced by state government. The Chief Executive Member (PromodBoro) has shown keen interest and the state government is pushing for development of these areas and definitely, we will see many such institutions coming up in our district now.
The Sentinel: What according to you are the top most challenges as the new BTC starts functioning.
Ranjan Sharma: Well, now the topmost challenges in the district facing the Council are education, road connectivity, communications, public health issues like drinking water supply. Drinking water supply is a major issue in the northern belt of the district bordering the Bhutan mountains. Even the Pagladiariver which is a huge river during monsoons, during winter, its water diminishes and dwindles into a small stream.
Baksa district has a traditional system of water sharing which is practiced by the people in the northern areas. They are all self-sufficient organisations headed by village elders without any government interventions and they have been systematically sharing water among themselves. Now the Public Health Engineering Department is coming forward, chipping in with their infrastructural, technical expertise, and they have also roped in the Central Ground Water Board. The Central Ground Water Board has started deep boring of water in some of these water-deficient areas. The SubankhataUttarkuchi area, where we have a lot of water scarcity in winter months, the Central Ground Water Board has come in with drilling machines which can bore deep inside the earth and extract water.
The Sentinel: Around 9,000 people had returned to the district during COVID. Are they working in the district or have they returned?
Ranjan Sharma: Most of those who had returned back have stayed back in the district as of now. Some have of course gone back but most of these boys were doing petty jobs in Hyderabad, Goa and Chennai. Some of them were security guards in apartments, malls, hotels and resorts. I am happy to find that some of these boys have now opened up their own restaurants in the areas, in northern areas like Nikashi or Daragaon picnic spots. Four-five of them have clubbed together and opened up a restaurant, where they are providing great quality food.
Even the standard of the food that they are serving is as good as any metropolitan city and at a very reasonable rate. I sometimes myself go to have momos, rolls and chowmein in these places. They are very courteous and good boys.
Some have also engaged in agriculture. They have come to me and I have guided them to the banks to provide them loans, so that they can take up agriculture in a major way with technical expertise.
The SBI also has this Rural Self-employment Training Institute in Kumarikata near Tamulpur where they are providing training to boys and girls. Boys have motor-driving training courses, plumbing, domestic wireman or electrician courses, and for women tailoring, beauty parlour. Recently, I visited the centre there and they said they have received a good response this time because the boys who were working outside have realized that it is much better to be at home and do something fruitful, and gainfully engage oneself, than going outside and being away from the family to gain a meagre amount.
We also have assistance programmes, where boys from the economically backward groups can avail of financial assistance for education, medical emergency. We have already put these schemes back on track and we should be able to help these people.
We also have the Assam Citizen Centric Service Delivery project, whereby we have public facilitation centres in the DC's office, SDO Civil's office, Revenue Circle offices, where one can apply online for PRC, next of kin certificate when the head of family has died, the caste certificate, clan certificate, non-creamy layer certificate. These facilitation centres were already in existence but now they have been rejuvenated, fresh funds for development have been coming up.
The Sentinel: What would be your top focus areas in the New Year?
Ranjan Sharma: Apart from the education and public health sector, road connectivity and infrastructure development sector would be the focus areas. Road connectivity is in a very initial stage. The roads connected to the civil subdivision from district headquarters is in a very poor condition. When I go from Musalpur to Tamulpur my sub-divisional headquarters on the east, I have to travel through two other districts — Nalbari and Kamrup. What I want is that there should be a lateral road parallel to the National Highway so that I can travel inside my district from district headquarters to civil subdivisions, both on east and west. Now with the new Council in place and the state government's renewed emphasis on development, we are sure that this will be taken up.
We have a huge potential in the tourism sector. Apart from the Manas, we have Bogamati on the eastern border which is a very popular picnic spot. We also have Chowki and Daragaon just north of district headquarters on Bhutan borders where there is huge footfall. Especially this year the turn-out has been unprecedented. We have given licenses to some of these local picnic spot management committees, we have asked them to maintain COVID protocol and to make sudden checks in certain places. They have to provide clean hygienic places in the picnic spots. There should not be garbage or filth around the places, as well as ensure safety and security of the picnickers. In fact, yesterday there was an incident in Bogamati where a boat had capsized but the water level was really low so no one was hurt. I have asked the civil sub-divisional officers to check and see why the incident took place and take action against those flouting rules.
Baksa has a lot of potential in sports. The boys and girls here are naturally inclined to sports. There are a good number of footballers, boxers, some of them have reached the national level. Youth here are also inclined towards Bush-wu, a form of sports like kung-fu. I visited the Baksa district Mr and Miss Baksa competition for body building and weight lifting. I visited them, they were going through trials which were taking place in Khongna which is a very underdeveloped place, about 20 kms from Musolpur. Road conditions were not good but I was surprised to find a modern gym. They said that such modern gyms are in other places like Tamulpur and Salbari. When our boys and girls hit the gyms, they turn out to be physically and mentally fit and they would stay away from anti-social activities and prosper better, the society will become better.
HEADLINE: Baksa district of Assam is known to be one of the backward districts of the state. Ranjan Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Baksa spoke to The Sentinel digital about the priority sectors and how the newly elected Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) and the district administration are working towards putting the district back on the development path. Here are the excerpts from the exclusive interview.
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