STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The issue of the Gorukhuti Agricultural Project near Sipajhar in the Darrang district rocked the State Assembly on Wednesday. Opposition members raised a hue and cry over the project, saying that the returns from the project are too meagre when compared to the investment. The government side, on the other hand, said that the project was progressing in the right direction. Padma Hazarika, the chairman of the project, said that if anybody proved the misuse of even a rupee, he would quit the public and as an MLA.
The issue came up for discussion during the Question Hour and the Cut Motion on the Supplementary Budget for the Financial Year 2022–23.
MLA Abdur Rahim Ahmed raised the issue and said, “According to information, the Government released Rs 9.5 crore for the Gorukhuti Project, but the return from the project is around Rs 1.11 crore. The return is too meagre when compared to the investment. Even the people evicted from the land produced more agricultural products there. The government should hand over the land back to the people evicted from there as they can produce more than the government.”
In his reply, Agriculture Minister Atul Bora said, “When the government takes steps to do something good, the Opposition views it with a negative vision. Gorukhuti is a dream project of the Chief Minister, and the project goes smoothly. The Government has entrusted MLA Padma Hazarika with the chairmanship of the project. Investment in such projects takes time to yield results. You cannot expect a tree to bear fruit immediately after its planting. The statement of the MLA to hand over the land to the evicted families only smacks of their intention.”
The Opposition then said that the government had failed to prove that even one of the evicted people was a foreigner.
Bora said, “The project is to develop agriculture. Dairy products are an added venture for the project. The project has 122 Gir cows, an ox, and 176 calves. The daily production of milk from the project is 245 litres on an average. However, the NDDB (National Dairy Development Board) also brought 300 Gir cows for the project. Our veterinary experts found that more production of milk is not possible from those cows. That led the NDDB to take back all 300 Gir cows, and the government need not have spent a single penny for that. It takes time for such projects to yield full-scale results.”
The Opposition attacked the government on the Gorukhuti Project with a renewed vigour during the Cut Motion, too. The chairman of the project, MLA Padma Hazarika, said, “A section views everything communally. They shouldn’t do that. A section of people belonging to the Islamic faith encroached upon land at Gorukhuti, and hence the government evicted them. Gorukhuti is a dream project of the Chief Minister. If anybody can prove the misuse of even one rupee, I will leave my public life, let alone my role as a legislator. We did not pay a single rupee for the 300 Gir cows that NDDB brought.”
During the discussion, Padma Hazarika said that the government had released around Rs 9 crore for the project, and Rs 5 crore is still in the bank account.
Sipajhar MLA Paramananda Rajbongshi termed Gorukhuti a good project and urged the opposition members to visit it to know the reality.
Meanwhile, replying to the cut motion, Minister Atul Bora said, “Since the government is working with the vision of taking Assam among the five most developed states in India, our thrust is on the development of agriculture. At the directive of the Chief Minister, we have constituted an agriculture commission. We have asked the commission to see why the farmers of the state do not opt for double cropping and other newly discovered agricultural activities. We have asked the commission to go to the field and inform the government of the reasons behind that. There are farmers who produce more. However, there are also lands in upper Assam that fall fallow after one cropping. Our thrust now is on corn that has bumper production in the past few years.”
During the discussion, a few opposition legislators alleged anomalies in the distribution of urea.
Replying to that, Minister Atul Bora said, “We have prepared an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for fertilizer distribution following a directive from the Chief Minister. If there is any specific complaint, we will see that.”
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