From our Correspondent
TINSUKIA, July 20: Tinsukia district has been in the forefront when it comes to observing bandhs and road blockades. The organizations which resort to illegal and unethical means of protest hardly bother about the inconveniences caused to the public and daily commuters.
Tinsukia, being a commercial hub, the district’s highways are linked directly to as many as three districts- Changlang, msai and Lower Debang Valley of Aruchal Pradesh with their registered warehouses located in Tinsukia town. People vent their ire on flimsy grounds while administration and police remain mute spectators even as the apex court has categorically banned bandhs and blockades.
Bandhs have been so frequent in Tinsukia district that it they have become the order of the day. With unregulated press correspondents of some local vercular dailies spread across the district, a section of media in the me of rural jourlism allegedly aid the bandh culture, which serves the local interest only. Many organizations after giving a bandh call just disappear from the scene and remain untraceable. Of late, some unknown youth groups in order to make their presence felt in their localities joined the bandwagon merely for media attention.
On-going agitation at Kakopathar which led to unprecedented harassment of general public, had nothing to do with either district administrations-msai or Tinsukia. Mridul Gogoi, who origilly hailed from Kakopathar, was a timber merchant, married to a Khamti woman and settled at Lathao under msai PS. On the day of incident on July 14, Gogoi was invited for a dinner by Mithila Mantaw, his Khamti business colleague at Lathao, and there joined another uninvited person. Mantaw, who was already in an inebriated condition, took out his hunting gun after engaging in a heated argument with him and accidently shot Gogoi who came to his rescue and died on the spot.
Mantaw surrendered himself before msai police and is at present languishing in jail. Conscious people feel that as the incident that occurred at Lathao was persol. The administration, particularly of Tinsukia district, should not have permitted agitators to squat on NH-57, and ought to have lifted the NH blockade without compromising with the agitators, even as the administration had sufficient days to handle the situation. Besides, the agitators have no right to take people of several districts for a ride as long-distance train and flight passengers had to face a lot of inconvenience.