Swelling Barak River threatens Singerband passage in Cachar

Special Correspondent

SILCHAR: People of Singerband village under Lakhipursub division of Cachar have been put to great inconvenience due to gradual erosion of their passage linking Binnakandie -Hilgath-Sonai road. Come monsoon and the inhabitants of Part V of the village live in perpetual apprehension owing to the swelling in the river Barak flowing down from the hills of Manipur and the collapse of the only outlet of the villagers. Erosion has been an annual feature. Already a substantial portion of the road has submerged in the gushing waters as the photograph shows. The passage in fact is in a precarious position as even the pedestrians cannot make their way.

Till date 300 metres of the road have been eroded. Movement of bikers and cyclists has been suspended long ago. In order to have some inlet and outlet access for pedestrians, scooter riders and bicyclists, the gaon panchayat of Singerband reached out to a good number of families to spare land in their possession for convenience of the movement of people, inhabiting the village, mostly of Manipuri community. They did sacrifice part of their land by shifting their boundaries by 4 feet each. But the erosion is taking away the extended part despite all the temporary protection measures by the department concerned.

Not only movement of pedestrians, but women, children and aged has become risky. The apprehension is in the event of heavy rains and flooding of river, more and more crop lands of paddy and other vegetations of the village and neighbourhood will be severely affected and adversely impact the livelihood of villagers who are mostly agriculturists. In the meantime, 3 families have already shifted to other locations, five others are preparing to shift. The names of the heads of these families have been listed along with the representation submitted to the MLA of the area, Rajdeep Goala.

It has also come to the knowledge of the Singerband Development Committee that Rs 8.35 crore has been sanctioned by the State government for the project to check erosion to be executed by the Water Resources department which awaits the end of monsoon to issue work order to the appointed contractor. Y Nadiachand Singha, general secretary of Singerband Development Committee, has appealed to the WRD to prepare a passage for commuters till the project work starts and also to assess the losses suffered and sustained by the families.

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