GUWAHATI: The State administration is on its toes to issue directives against illegal earth-cutting in the hillocks in Guwahati and other areas in the State only when there are landslides claiming the lives of residents. The agility on the part of the administration, however, evaporates into thin air after a few days as and when the news of landslides subsides. This is how 'disaster management' can best be described in Assam insofar as landslide is concerned.
Take Guwahati as a case study. The metropolitan city has 19 hillocks in and around it – mostly with illegal human settlements. Earth-cutting has been rampant in these hillocks under the very nose of the district administration that issues notices as and when there are incidents of landslides. One such notice was issued by the district administration on Tuesday.
A few years back, after conducting a survey the government identified 366 areas in Guwahati as "landslide prone", and told the residents to vacate the areas, besides suggesting other corrective measures for the government to take. However, there has been no outcome. Rather activities like encroachment, earth-cutting and illegal construction of houses have been rampant in Guwahati.
Such an instance came up in the Barak Valley this year. A series of recent landslides in the Barak Valley prompted the Chief Minister to get the hillocks in the valley surveyed by the GSI (Geological Survey of India). The GSI conducted the survey and submitted the report to the government. The survey report has pointed out the lapses in issuing permission for construction of houses and ascertaining norms after houses are erected. The report says that before issuing building permissions the landslide history of the location needs to be taken into consideration and the designs of the houses should be in sync with the slopes.
The ground reality remains that the authorities never take landslide history of localities into consideration while issuing building permissions, nor do they fix responsibility on any official for such lapses.
The students of Delhi University, Tata Institute Social Sciences and Jamia Millia Islamia University did conduct a survey of landslide in Guwahati. One of the recommendations of the study is doing a 'landslide management mapping' for identifying landslide-prone areas and types of landslide. The report further says that landslide standard guidelines need to be prepared; and construction of houses and human settlement should be totally banned within the high-risk zones. "Retrofitting of the houses built on the hills should be done so that it can withstand the impact of the landslide so some extent. Vulnerable slopes must be corrected in advance using technical methods. Slopes in the hills should be monitored regularly," the report said.
The sad fact remains that even now illegal encroachment of hills and earth-cutting are rampant in Guwahati and elsewhere in the State, and the government acts only when there are some fatal accidents. Such an attitude on the part of the government makes one question: Is the government at all serious on this problem?
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