PALASBARI: Erosion-hit Areas Visit: State Water Resources Minister Pijush Hazarika visited the erosion-hit areas at Palasbari in Kamrup district on Tuesday, stated a press release. Hazarika also took stock of the ongoing erosion protection works of the Palasbari-Gumi project. The minister visited the protection works of embankments, stone spur and sluice gate implemented under the supervision of FEMA at an estimated cost of Rs 1.40 crore at Palasbari and Chaygaon. The minister directed the officials concerned to maintain the quality of the erosion protection works. He also visited the erosion-hit Panikhaiti area and Ambari under Chaygaon constituency.
The minister was accompanied by Kamrup Deputy Commissioner Kailash Kartik N, Kamrup Superintendent of Police Hitesh Roy, MLA of Palasbari constituency, Hemanga Thakuria, MLA of Chaygaon constituency, Rekibuddin Ahmed, officials of Water Resource department, among others. Later, talking to the media persons, Hazarika said that no corruption and anomalies in the erosion protection works would be tolerated.
Eighty per cent of the Palasbari town, once famous for timber business in the country, was eroded by the mighty Brahmaputra following the 1950 great earthquake. Thousands of families became homeless due to the erosion at Palasbari. The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru also visited the erosion-hit Palasbari town then. Though crores of rupees have been spent to protect Palasbari and Chhaygaon areas from the erosion of the River Brahmaputra for the last five decades, no permanent and scientific solutions are observed in this regard. Several hundred families have already been rendered homeless and have lost their crop land due to erosion.
The local people have demanded the government to adopt scientific and permanent measures to check the massive erosion of the might Brahmaputra in the area. On Tuesday, a letter about the issues of riverbank erosion of Palasbari was published in The Sentinel and the same day Pijush Hazarika visited Palasbari to assess the works of the projects done for the improvement of erosion. This can be seen as the effect of The Sentinel.