Guwahati: At a time when floods across Assam have, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today announced three schemes totaling Rs.25 crore for finding a "permanent solution" to the problem of erosion caused by the River Brahmaputra in Upper Assam's Dibrugarh.
The three schemes announced today have been envisioned to provide protection to the villages of Liting Gaon, Rohmoria Gaon and Bogori Tola Lukasoni Gaon in Rohmoria from erosion. He also took stock of progress in the porcupine construction work carried out under the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) in Rohmoria. Union Minister of State for Food Processing Rameswar Teli, Water Resources Minister Keshab Mahanta, MLA Lahowal Rituparna Baruah, DC Dibrugarh Pallab Gopal Jha and other top officials of Water Resources Department were also present during Chief Minister's visit to Rohmoria.
After interacting with locals, the Chief Minister announced that a rehabilitation policy would soon be taken up by the state government for the flood and erosion hit landless people.
Sonowal said that erosion has also affected many districts in the state and the state government has been giving priority on the construction of embankments for providing protection from flood and erosion.
Stating that erosion has been a perennial problem of the areas under Rohmoria, Sonowal pointed out that people here have been carrying out democratic movements to bring about a "permanent solution" to this lingering issue.
The State Government has been dedicatedly pursuing the objective of permanently solving the issue of flood and erosion in the state and for that purpose, a joint river management mechanism has been mooted with the other North Eastern States and Bhutan, Sonowal informed, adding that dredging in the Brahmaputra would take place as soon as the dredgers arrive.
Later, the Chief Minister visited the flood relief camps at Dinjoy Hazarimal Higher Secondary School at Dinjoy, Chabua, and took stock of the facilities, while also interacting with the inmates of the 77 families of flood-affected Dodhia Sarisuti Gaon that have been provided shelter there.
The Chief Minister also visited the flood relief camp set up at Kalaguru Bishnu Rabha Auditorium and Bindhakata High School at Bindhakata in Dibrugarh and interacted with the inmates where 110 families from the villages of Tengabari, Mirigaon, et al, have taken shelter.
Sonowal said that the entire area from Dinjan Tea Estate to Balijan have been affected by erosion, and a lot of people have been rendered landless. Water Resources Department has been implementing a project worth Rs. 17 crore for permanently solving the problem of erosion in the area and the State Government was also actively considering another project worth Rs. 24 crore.
It may be recalled that last year also, the Sonowal-led BJP Government had launched three other schemes in December for a total cost of Rs. 18 crore which are at different stages of implementation.