Sar areas survey: Rs 23.75 lakh allotted for DPR preparation

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Welfare of Minorities and Development Department has allocated Rs 23.75 lakh for preparing a DPR (detailed project report) to the director of economics and statistics for the socioeconomic survey of char areas of Assam in 2022-23. The survey will be conducted under the director of the Char Area Development.

An official of the Welfare and Minority and Development Department said that "the department has proposed to conduct a fresh socio-economic survey of the Char areas of Assam. In this regard, Rs. 23.75 lakh have been allocated for the years 2022-23. The Director, Economics and Statistics, has been requested to prepare all the required methodology, including a sampling plan, mechanisms for data collection, data analysis, report preparation, etc., and a project estimate for a socio-economic survey of sar areas of the state."

This survey will be conducted after 20 years. The last socio-economic survey of the sar areas in the state was in 2002-03. Such a survey is long overdue. The survey will help in planning, conducting research activities, and general administration of sar areas. The 2002-03 survey of the sar areas covered 299 gaon panchayats, 59 blocks, and 23 sub-divisions in 14 districts of the state. The survey found 2,251 sars with an area of 3,60,927 hectares and a population of 24,90,097. Their literacy rate in 2002-03 was 19.3 per cent.

The district-wise breakup of the 2,251 sars in 2002-03 in the state was 175 in Kamrup, 32 in Nalbari, 277 in Barpeta, 179 in Goalpara, 117 in Bongaigaon, 480 in Dhubri, 134 in Darrang, 39 in Morigaon, 43 in Nagaon, 293 in Jorhat, 145 in Sonitpur, 109 in Lakhimpur, 149 in Dhemaji, and 79 in Tinsukia.

In the 20 years since the last survey of sar areas, the situation has changed a lot with the disappearance and creation of many sars. Rivers and their tributaries gobble up river banks and sars during floods and erosion, and when rivers change their usual courses. They also create new sars. Thus, changes in the number of sars and their population are inevitable. The State Government does all work related to sar area development with 20-year-old data, and as such, the Directorate cannot reach many of the newly formed sar areas.

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