‘Dishonour to Mahatma Gandhi’: Congress protests against Doomdooma Municipal Board

OUR CORRESPONDENT

DOOMDOOMA: More than a hundred workers of the Indian National Congress (INC), led by former MLA Durga Bhumij, Tinsukia district Congress president Jayanta Kalita, and Kakapather Block Congress Committee president Rajen Medhi, staged a protest against Doomdooma Municipal Board (DMB) on Monday for its alleged removal of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi from its present site at the heart of the town.

They staged the protest, alleging that the DMB showed utter disregard for the father of the nation by removing the statue of Mahatma Gandhi by excavator and then carrying the statue by crane without any cover to the DMB office. The general public felt bad and termed it distasteful the way DMB removed it.

Although the District Commissioner of Tinsukia District Swapneel Paul, came out with a clarification a few days ago, former MLA Durga Bhumij alleged in a press conference that he and other distinguished persons, like former MLA Dilip Moran or centenarian freedom fighter Satyalata Gogoi, were not invited before taking such a step.

The DMB had a plan sanctioned by DC to set up a clock tower in the place where the Gandhi statue is situated and replace it with a new one of bigger size in its original place, as the present statue, established in 1959 at the initiative of the first Congress MLA of independent India, Harihar Chaudhury (now deceased), and the then chairman Thakur Ram Bachan Singh (now deceased), got deformed due to wear and tear over the years. According to Bhumij, Imdian National Congress would vehemently oppose the move to set up a clock tower above the statue of Gandhiji, which, according to him, was a part of the British legacy.

However, about the establishment of any clock tower in the tea gardens of Assam, he flatly denied it. Here the fact remains that DMB first took a decision on February 15, in a public meeting convened in its office for the setting up of two projects as part of the beautification of the town, which is the oldest small town committee of Assam, along with Diphu, to be recognised by a gazette notification in 1925. The first project was the setting up of a clock tower along with the replacement of the present Gandhi statue, and secondly, the establishment of a welcome gate just at the entrance of the town on the other side of the Doomdooma river bridge on NH 37.

Significantly, even the foundation stones were laid by MP Pradan Baruah on March 7 in a virtual mode in a public meeting organized at the place just adjacent to the Gandhi Statue.

As is evident, the carrying of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, by a crane, and that too in an uncovered manner, raised many eyebrows and is considered derogatory by the saner section of the people.

Also Read: Assam: Tinsukia DC’s clarification on Mahatma Gandhi statue row (sentinelassam.com)

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