Letters to the Editor: Dibrugarh Secretariat: A new chapter sets off

 Dibrugarh Secretariat: A new chapter sets off

The inauguration of a Chief Minister's Secretariat in the tea capital of Assam, Dibrugarh, is indeed a historic move in decentralizing governance in the true sense of the term through bringing upper Assam closer to Dispur. The Sunday 8 September editorial 'Secretariat in Dibrugarh' has rightly said that the BJP-led government has set off a new chapter in the past two centuries in Dibrugarh, which attained a special place in the Second World War and from where the first railway train in the entire Northeast had first moved. lt may be mentioned here that two digitally connected CMOs, one at Dispur and the other at Dibrugarh, will not only make governance and decision-making faster but also enhance administrative connectivity with nearly 7.9 million people across 21,264 square km in the nine eastern districts of the state. Now, people from these areas need not to travel all the way to Guwahati because the CM himself will officiate from his Dibrugarh Secretariat four days every month. Needless to say, our administrative reforms of late have encompassed citizen’s characters. 'Mission karmayogi' helps build capacity across civil services; e-offices help ministers switch to paperless offices; and e-samiksha-a program that helps to track the implementation of government-level decisions for faster development of the state. The people-centric model of governance by the state government is truly the heart of administrative reforms for new India in its 77th year of Independence. The administrative decentralisation is indeed a welcome step. It needs to be a continuous process. Healthy competition across the districts across various outcome parameters also help drive focus on capacity building in government to achieve objectives as well as result-orientated public services. Let us hope that the new Secretariat in Dibrugarh will not just remain a building, but people of the districts will also see faster decision-making and quicker implementation of various pending projects in the near future which is needed for inclusive growth of the state.

Iqbal Saikia,

Guwahati.

Vulture is man’s friend

Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra has initiated a novel project termed "Jatayu Gram Mitra" under which villagers surrounding the Reserve have been asked to dump animal carcasses at designated places for the Indian vultures to feed on.  This step is laudable as it came on the occasion of the International Vulture Awareness Day on September 7.  Ten Indian vultures were brought from Haryana in January and released into their natural habitats at Pench. The endangered vultures are extremely important for a healthy ecosystem because they feast on the flesh of certain dead animals that could have caused serious diseases in human beings if left to rot. Moreover, pests like rats and pack of dogs would have taken over the area causing unimaginable hardship to the human population.

In India, approximately 5,000 to 15,000 vultures belonging to nine species are said to be present in the wild, not a healthy number.  The "Vulture Action Plan 2020--25" of the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Climate Change aims at preventing vulture deaths by eliminating the illegal proliferation of the drug, diclofenac sodium, in market for veterinary use after there was a sharp decline in the vulture numbers over a period.  Diclofenac sodium was believed to have been passed on to the vultures, after they consumed the flesh of dead cattle that were loaded with the drug during their last days, causing them kidney diseases. Though diclofenac was banned for veterinary use in 2006, and an alternative was prescribed, rampant black marketing of the drug is not unknown.

Ganapathi Bhat,

(gbhat13@gmail.com)

Conserve rainwater

Considering that Assam receives a fair amount of rainwater in a year, all-out efforts should be made by the State Government to save and store rainwater. Despite abundance of rainwater in the monsoon seasons, the state has acute scarcity of drinking water as well as a dry spell situation, adding to the farming communities' woes of unavailability of water in their lands. Conserving water by proper techniques will result in more availability of water, which can be utilised even after the rainy season. Secondly, annual floods occurring in 3/4 waves leave the state in a trail of destruction of cropland in resultant erosion, besides unrecoverable loss of human lives, properties, livestock, etc. So, instead of wasting rainwater by allowing it to flow away and vulnerable flood damage, the runoff water can be conserved by diverting it through streams and channels to the existing natural reservoirs like wetland, beels etc., or man-made basins/artificial storage. That will benefit the state to a great extent.

Pannalal Dey,

Guwahati.