Assam PCC President Ripun Bora, claiming to posses the report of the Expert Committee on Fluvial Morphology of River Brahmaputra, Sediment Management with Possibility of Dredging by adopting Modern Technology, said the report mentioned dredging in Brahmaputra River is “not viable”.
Formed by the State government last February, the committee, in its conclusive recommendation had reportedly maintained that dredging operations in the entire length of the Brahmaputra ‘will not be a feasible option for mitigating the flood and erosion hazards caused by the mighty river. This was followed by the five-day-long extravaganza Namami Brahmaputra Festival on March 31 and on the last day of which Union Minister of Roads, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari sanctioned Rs 400 cr for dredging the length of Brahmaputra from Sadia in upper Assam to Dhubri in lower.
“The river carries a huge quantity of silt throughout the year and hence a dredged channel of the river will always have a tendency to get filled up,” an excerpt of the report was revealed by Bora during a press conference at APCC headquarters Rajiv Bhawan here.
Bora lamented both the BJP-led central and State government for committing such “unviable gimmicks” instead of concentrating on people’s welfare.
“They (both the central and state government) are making unrealistic plans for which, apparently, they have no dearth of money. But, for real development issues, they always tend to have shortage in funds. If BJP tries to defy the committee’s recommendations and start the dredging works anyway, the congress will not tolerate and retaliate,” Bora said.
He also criticised the Central government for providing meagre amounts to the beneficiaries of the Atal Amrit Abhiyan scheme and said that the BJP should consider the defeat of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in the Guwahati University elections against All Assam Students’ Union as a wake-up call, and that “people have started seeing through their lies”.