In a statement, the Mancha said that even within the short span of time since assuming the mantle of governing the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had shown utter disregard towards even understanding the pressing concerns of Assam and the North-east – let alone finding solutions to those.
“The truth is that neither the Congress nor the BJP has any genuine desire to resolve the burning issues of Assam – be it the perennial problem of flood and erosion or the unabated cross-border infiltration from Bangladesh. In fact, all the Central governments of the country since the last 67 years have shown a marked disinclination to understand and resolve the region’s problems. This Narendra Modi-led Government is no different from the rest,” Mancha adviser Prof Deven Dutta and joint convenors Dr Dilip Bora and Manjit Mahanta said in a statement.
Pointing out that on the issue of big hydro-electric projects too the BJP had made a u-turn, the Mancha said that the latest developments strongly hinted at some understanding between the Centre and the Tarun Gogoi-led State Government in pushing through the projects in a hurry in utter disregard to the catastrophic fallouts, especially downstream impacts and environmental degradation.
The Mancha said that the reason behind Assam’s recurring floods were not excess water – something sought to be transferred to the country’s arid regions by the river-linking project – but the large-scale deposition of silt on riverbeds.
“The river-linking project will spell doom for the river-dependent agrarian economy of Assam, and this must be protested en masse,” it said.
Source: Assam Tribune
Post a Comment