Hazarika makes good points in the Sentinel letter-to-the-editor. But that
is NOT enough. Assam cannot just resaign itself to past failures or faulty
actions or no action at all, nor should Assam accept grossly faulty
propositions for today or tomorrow. NOt in this day and age. Not when we
have the ability to analyze the problem rationally and have acess to a
wealth of knowledge accumulated by those who have have experimented and
refined the technological and scientific processes.
It is time for people like Assam Netters who are trained to think
analytically, to speak up.
cm
Of Flood, Politicians and the Bureaucracy
The occasional release of funds by the Centre for
flood control never fails to
make big news. Sadly, there is little realization
that our failure to control the
Brahmaputra, is due to the ineptitude of the
political leadership of yesteryears.
During the period of the first two Five-year Plans
(1951-61), most of the States
succeeded in clearing projects for controlling
river systems. Agriculture was then
the priority sector of the planners. Multi-purpose
river valley projects were taken
up to control floods, to irrigate crop land and to
generate electricity. During this
period, the Bhakra Dam, Damodar Valley Project,
Hirakud Dam and the
Nagarjuna Sagar Dam were constructed. The rural
economy of Punjab and
Andhra Pradesh was transformed as a result of the
projects taken up in these
States. All this failed to make any impact on our
political leadership. The elected
government of that time failed to articulate the
enormity of the flood problem and
to demand a permanent solution to it. Our
legislators at that time did not consider
it necessary to adopt a resolution in the State
Assembly urging the Centre for an
integrated scheme for the Brahmaputra river system.
To all who mattered, this
was a non-issue. The result is that while other
States built dams and canal
systems, we have numerous earthen bunds,
road-cum-bunds, designed to breach
at some place during high floods. The priority, as
always, is flood relief, not
flood control.
If our political leadership failed to deliver,
which anyway, was not known, either
for brilliance, vision or political skill; the
higher bureaucracy of that time failed
to stop in to give direction and to steer the State
towards growth. They were an
insular lot, imprevious to the developments taking
place in other States, pushing
files and biding time in the salubrious climate of
Shillong. Otherwise, how does
one explain the non-inclusion of projects for the
river Brahmaputra in the two
Plans, when West Bengal and Orissa were sanctioned
projects? Non-performance
is evident in every sphere. No steps were taken to
preserve the wet lands
(Diporbeel and Sandubi are lost), to build
townships (like Kalyani in West
Bengal), to set up a milk colony on some grazing
reserves (West Bengal has one
at Haringhata). The stage is now past for any such
scheme. No project of the like
of Hirakud or Nagarjuna dam can be built now. This
will cause large-scale
displacement, as illegal immigrants have settled on
the riverine lands. Town
planning was neglected. The constricted roads in
the extended areas of Guwahati
are proof enough. And but for R.G. Baruah, Guwahati
would have had to be
content with the undersize playgrounds - relics of
the British period. The
ingenuity of the administration would then have
found an use for the present site
of the stadium - homestead land for political
sufferers and Government
servants.
Gopal Hazarika,
Rehabari,
Guwahati-8.
At 1:24 PM +0530 7/26/02, dibakar bhattacharjee wrote:
>Mr Gopal Hazarika of Rehabari, Guwahati in his letter to the Editor Sentinel
>says "The priority has always been Flood Control rather than Flood
>prevention".
>And that is why we are where we are.
>
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