Kamrup (M) DC office adding to pollution!

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, June 25: Assam continues to use the Brahmaputra flowing through it as a garbage dumping pit at a time when rest of India is busy with the clean Ganga mission. Isn’t it the oddest of the odds?

Unless people and government agencies clean up their acts cleanliness is going to elude the State. It is seen that the Brahmaputra is being used as the dumping pit at different stretches in the State, including the ones in Guwahati. If the garbage disposal system of the Kamrup (M) Deputy Commissioner’s office is taken as a case study, things become crystal clear as to how the rivers and other water bodies of the State get polluted. Surprisingly, there is not a single dustbin on the premises of the DC office in Kamrup (M), and no garbage cleaners from the GMC collect garbage from there. The practice of garbage disposal they follow is the oddest of the odds – throwing garbage to the riverside at the rear end of the office so that the garbage so accumulated there is washed away by the river when it is in full spate during the monsoon. This system of garbage disposal on the part of an office, from where all messages of clean-up drives including Swachch Bharat are emanated to rest of the district, adds to the pollution level of the mighty river. This practice also does not augur well for the much-hyped beautification drive of the riverfront in the city.

What is seen on the riverfronts in the city over the years is that clean-up drives are carried out soon after every festival like immersion of idols, Chhath Puja and the like. However, after that everything is back to square one with even an important office like that of the Kamrup (M) DC not hesitating from adding to the pollution level of the Brahmaputra.

The recent hydrological reports regarding the pollution level of the water of the Brahmaputra can be a pointer to it. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has identified as many as 28 stretches of rivers in Assam as polluted. The CPCB has even identified Deepor Beel as a river stretch. The 28 stretches of rivers identified by the CPCB as polluted in Assam are Mora Bharali, Barak, Beki, Bharalu, Bhogdoi, Boginadi, Brahmaputra, Buridihing, Deepor Beel, Dhansiri, Digboi, Disang, Jia Bharali, Jhanji, Kolong, Kopili, Kharsang, Kohora, Kundil, Kushiara, Manas, Pagladia, Panchnai, Ronganadi, Sankoch, Sonai, Subansiri and Katakhal.