GUWAHATI: The people of Assam residing at Hanskati-Tengapani village along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border under Sadiya LAC want to side with the neighbouring State. The fringe dwellers of Belpara, Babukona and Kardang villages along the Assam-Meghalaya border under Krishnai police station in Goalpara district also prefer to be dwellers of Meghalaya. The main woe for such villagers evincing their interest to desert Assam is: Dispur has made them languish without power connection, without supply of potable water, without proper maintenance of roads, without healthcare facilities etc for decades.
One can notice the stark contrasts in Assam areas sharing border with its neighbouring States. The other sides of such fringe areas have all – power connection, water supply, proper road connectivity, schools, hospitals and whatnot. Hanskati-Tengapani along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh is a revenue village set up way back in 1968 and since then it has been languishing in an inhumane living condition. The villagers are crestfallen when they see development activities taking place on the other side of inter-State the border.
The tale is no different in villages like Belpara, Babukona and Kardang along the State’s bordering stretches with Meghalaya. Since there is no development in the Assam side of the border, Meghalaya takes the advantage to make the fringe dwellers tilt towards them. They carryout development activities like electrification, supplying potable water, boosting connectivity, setting up schools and hospitals etc on Assam land in these villages. According to the border dwellers, this is how Assam land is being encroached upon by the neighbouring States.
One cannot forget the border skirmishes between Assam and Meghalaya in the Lumpi area. If what is going on in this sector is allowed to continue any longer, more Lumpi-like tension is on the cards. The contrast between Assam and Meghalaya in Upper Lumpi is quite distinct. While people can drive Maruti-800 cars in the Meghalaya side at ease, one has to board four-wheeler mini trucks to reach Lumpi from the Assam side. Besides proper connectivity, the other side of the inter-State border has a power connection, water supply facilities, schools, hospital etc. Strangely enough, none of these facilities is seen in the Assam side.
This plight of the fringe villages of Assam is the outcome of decades of neglect to them by the successive governments at Dispur. The moot question is: will the BJP-led coalition at Dispur continue to tread the same beaten track or do something tangible to break the jinx? However, over the past two-and-a-half years nothing tangible has been done by this government on this front. It has, of course, changed the name of the nodal department as ‘Border Area Protection and Development Department’ from ‘Border Area Development Department’. Merely changing the name of the department can never serve the purpose. Can it?
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