Bhaskar Phukan, Deputy Commissioner, Kokrajhar spoke exclusively to The Sentinel Assam on several issues including how employment opportunities are being created for the people who have returned, how Kokrajhar is all set to be the next educational hub of lower Assam and steps being taken to further improve the primary healthcare facilities in the district. Here are the excerpts from the interview.
Sentinel Assam: What is the update on the COVID situation in Kokrajhar?
Bhaskar Phukan: We had over 800 cases till about a week back and maximum of them have recovered and has been discharged. Our recovery rate has been very good. Unfortunately, four people have died due to COVID. I joined on May 12 this year as the Deputy Commissioner of Kokrajhar and that is exactly when the number of COVID cases began to increase in Assam. I would like to share with you here that as per Assam Government's earlier policy to fight COVID, the entire state was divided into five zones – Kokrajhar, Jorhat, Tezpur, Guwahati and Silchar. Kokrajhar had to take care of nine districts. During this time people from outside the state had also started returning home. I landed in the middle of all these challenges. First challenge was, Kokrajhar had to handle people from 9 districts. Creating quarantine facilities all people coming in from Srirampur Gate (Assam-West Bengal border) side became a huge challenge because the quarantine facility we created at the stadium had a 1200 capacity but the number of people who started coming in was much more. Around 5000-6000 people started coming in and that was a big challenge for us as the administration but we managed to overcome all of it. Honourable Health Minister Shri Himanta Biswa Sarma kept calling us, motivated us and helped us a lot to overcome the challenges.
After that the government changed the policy and made it district-wise. Every district would handle its people. That is when the load on Kokrajhar minimised. From around 5000 now the number of people coming in has gone down to about 190 who have returned home. Now we are down from 43 quarantine centres to two. Now there is community transmission. So, we started focusing on COVID care centres. The Rup Nath Brahma Civil Hospital has capacity of 85 beds. Capacity in the Serphanguri Model Hospital is also 85. So, we had a total capacity of 170. We realised that this is not enough. So, we took the nursing college which has just been completed. and created 320 bed isolation centre and we also took over the jail. So now we have a total capacity of at least 550 beds. Our testing has gone up but thankfully we are yet to reach the saturation point as far as our capacity is concerned. We have created enough capacities.
Sentinel Assam: How different is the role of a Deputy Commissioner in a council area?
Bhaskar Phukan: Most development services like revenue, transport and communication, health are under the Bodoland Territorial council. The role and responsibilities of the Deputy Commissioners in BTC is limited. The DC is responsible for law and order and flood relief and other relief activities. But in this fight against COVID the state government had made the DC the chairman of the COVID management committee. But as the senior administrator of the district, the DC can always interfere or give suggestions in any matter related to the district.
Sentinel Assam: What is the kind of development that Kokrajhar has seen with regard to health and educational infrastructure?
Bhaskar Phukan: If we talk of education as an indicator of development then in the past 20 years during the BTC tenure there has been tremendous development in Kokrajhar. I will not tell you by seeing any report but I will tell you from my own experience the development that I have seen in Kokrajhar. I joined my service in 1992 and I joined at a place called Musalpur in Baksa district. From Musalpur to Kadamtal its about 17 kms but it used to take over two and half hours. The road was so bad. But when I visited Musalpur just a few years back, I saw that even the interior village roads have fixed. Roads are an indicator of development of an area and Kokrajhar roads have been developed a lot. In the field of education too, Kokrajhar has a university, engineering college, a medical college is under construction, an institute of technology under the Central Government is also there. Kokrajhar also has a science, commerce college and also a women's college. Kokrajhar has all the necessary institutions for higher education. Even the primary schools too have been made in a much better manner. If you look at the performances by students from Kokrajhar, this time one of the UPSC rank holders is from Kokrajhar. In the coming days, I feel Kokrajhar will become the educational hub of lower Assam. Even in the case of online classes, the Inspector of Schools told me himself that the percentage of students attending online classes is very impressive as compared to some other parts of Assam.
Sentinel Assam: What are the livelihood and employment opportunities in place for the returnees and also for the youth of Kokrajhar?
Bhaskar Phukan: A large number of our people have come back and now they are looking for jobs. Most of them already have skills. The Panchayat and Rural Development department here has started a re-skilling and re-employment of these people. Data has been collected after proper due diligence and the process of issuing job cards and giving them employment is already underway. People of Kokrajhar are traditionally hard working and most of them speak very good English so we are now looking at how and where can we employ them, tap their soft skills. We are working on that strategy. We definitely cannot put them in MNREGA kind of work because they are better skilled. We are also planning to develop intra-state tourism. Kokrajhar has a lot of tourism potential — the Mahamaya Temple, it attracts a lot of tourists from Bengal. The foothills of Bhutan is very attractive and Kokrajhar is extremely green. You take a drive and it will make you forget about the worldly worries and about COVID. Kokrajhar as a tourist destination is still untapped. I would definitely try my best to develop Kokrajhar as a tourist destination. I have fallen in love with Kokrajhar and its people who are simple, loving and hard working. Kokrajhar now is a very peaceful place and is just set to move to the next level.
Sentinel Assam: Of late there has been reports of child trafficking, drug trafficking in Kokrajhar. Would like to draw your attention to these unfortunate incidents.
Bhaskar Phukan: Kokrajhar was in the news for human trafficking. Thanks to the police administration and the good work being done by one NGO here. The NGO and the police did a joint operation and rescued the child. Now the police and the administration has stepped up the vigil even in railway stations, any suspicious movement is promptly reported and the NGO too has been doing a great job. There is a very good system that has been put in place here and is working very well. Public too is very alert here.
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