By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, April 5: Pre-monsoon rains are back in Guwahati with the same old story – promulgation of prohibitory orders banning earth-cutting by the administration, people defying all such orders and people dying in landslides. The first two lives lost in landslide this year in the city are of Saidul Ali (18) and Raizuddin Ali, both hailing from Dhubri, at Chapidong, Bonda under Dispur Revenue Circle today.
According to the people of the locality, the incident occurred around 7.50 am today. While cutting earth to erect a guard wall in the campus of Icon English School at Chapidong two labourers were buried alive when a huge chunk of earth slid and fell on them. The colleagues of the duo, according to the local people, kept the incident secret among themselves at least for some time, and made an effort on their own the rescue the duo. However, when they failed to recover the duo, the fellow labourers informed the local people who made no delay to inform the administration. Soon an excavator was taken to the site and the duo was retrieved dead.
The incident triggered a hue and cry in Icon English School campus. As a measure to prevent any unwanted incidents, the administration declared the school and its vicinity a prohibited area. As an immediate measure, Kamrup (M) Deputy Commissioner M Angamuthu asked Dispur Revenue Circle Officer to order an inquiry into the incident, besides filing an FIR against Icon English School proprietor Radha Bora. The DC also declared a prohibitory order afresh banning earth-cutting in the district under the DDMA Act. Meanwhile, the local people alleged that Radha Bora is a land Mafioso who has another case filed against him by the Forest Department. “This is not the first time that people died due to landslide there. There were such incidents there earlier also,” they said.