Pijush Hazarika | AT Photo
Silchar, May 5: As a part of his two-day visit to Barak Valley, Minister of Water Resources Pijush Hazarika visited some of the major locations on the edge of river Barak in Cachar district which are vulnerable to flood and took stock of the construction and repair work.
Later talking to reporters at Bethukandi, one of the most controversial sites since the devastating flood last year, Hazarika claimed “70 percent work (400 metres of total 700 metres) has been completed at this location. The sluice gate which is under the Irrigation Department has been made operational and now a test of the sluice gate would be carried out to drive out water from adjacent Mahishabeel into Barak river. Work to raise and reconstruct the 700 metre embankment is nearly done while there are some land acquisition issues (covering around 300 metres out of the total length of the embankment) which would be addressed soon. “
He further asserted, “Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma is clear with his direction that people of Silchar must not face any more hastle like what happened in 2022. I am impressed with the work done by our engineers and they have assured that there has been no compromise on the quality of work done to ensure safety of the people of Silchar. However, if people have claims of substandard work, appropriate action would be taken upon proper investigation."
In reply to a question on the allegation that the devastation caused by the flood last year is allegedly claimed to be a man-made disaster, the Minister replied, " even I have heard a similar allegation and let me make it clear that no such act will be tolerated henceforth. We shall chalk out some mechanism to keep strict vigil on such acts in the future and stringent measures would be taken against anyone found guilty of damaging government work,"
Later, Hazarika went to Annapurna Ghat wherein work to prevent river erosion is in process with geo-bags along the river bank. He also visited Manikpur area in Borkhola constituency and took note of the areas damaged by flood.
The minister gave clear directions to Cachar Deputy Commissioner Rohan Kumar Jha to take steps to solve the land acquisition issue which is hindering the ongoing work here as well. He also directed the departmental officials to take steps so that residents of the vicinity do not suffer during the rainy season.
Further, the Water Resources Minister went to visit the sluice gates at Mahadevpur in Katigorah area close to the Indo-Bangla international border close to Boleshwar river.
Interestingly, during his visit last year, the Minister had spotted that as many as six sluice gates were defunct following which he had asked the officials to mend the sluice gates. This time, the departmental officials informed that all the six sluice gates have been repaired and made operational as well.
Hazarika has the Executive Engineer of the department to monitor the sluice gates once every week for the next four months and submit weekly report to him ensuring the functional status of the sluice gates.
Silchar MP Dr Rajdeep Roy, MLAs Dipayan Chakraborty, Kaushik Rai, Mihir Kanti Shome along with officials of Water Resources Department accompanied the minister throughout the day's visits.