Petitioner Debabrata Saikia termed the floods as a man-made one, not a natural disaster
Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court has asked Assam Government to submit its counter replies on the flash floods in Upper Assam, especially in the Sivasagar, Charaideo and Jorhat districts, by September 3, 2026.
Senior Congress leader Debabrata Saikia filed a public interest litigation (PIL) that the High Court admitted today. Saikia termed the flash floods that devastated the three Upper Assam districts as a man-made disaster, not a natural calamity.
Saikia said, "I approached the high court twice. The court issued clear directions in 2019 and 2022 to stop illegal mining in the Dikhou River bed and to constitute a task force battalion. The government simply ignored those orders. Even the official report of the Water Resources Department, dated January 12, 2022, had clearly predicted that continued illegal excavation would change the river's course and cause devastation. That prediction has now come true in the most tragic manner."
Saikia pointed out that the illegal opencast coal mining in the Nagaland catchment areas and sudden release of water from the Doyang Hydroelectric Project without proper coordination further aggravated the disaster.
On hearing the PIL, Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar made a verbal observation that there was some genuine concern raised by the petitioner, and both the state governments, including the central government, shall be answerable, especially on the issue of whether it was water released from the dam which led to the man-made catastrophe.
The petitioner sought (i) immediate and permanent halt to all illegal riverbed mining in the Dikhou River and its tributaries; (ii) full implementation of the high court's earlier orders of 2019 and 2022; (iii) constitution of a high-power monitoring committee headed by a retired judge; (iv) scientific assessment of the role of illegal mining and dam releasing water; and (v) registration of FIRs against those responsible for illegal mining and official negligence.
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