Don't let it be a gimmickry, APCC tells Sonowal on lesson from Chi

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, June 18: The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), while welcoming the move on the part of Chief Minister Sarbanda Sonowal and his Cabinet colleague Water Resource Minister Keshab Mahanta to emulate expertise from Chi to tame the Brahmaputra, has appealed to them not to make the announcement a gimmickry.

Sonowal made an announcement yesterday that his government had already taken a decision to form an expert committee which should study Chi’s Yellow River magement strategies so as to replicate that in Assam in order to tame the Might Male River in the State.

In a statement issued to the press today, APCC vice-president and MP Ripun Bora said: “Taming the Brahmaputra, as it has been done to the Huang He in Chi, is not possible for Assam with its own resources. So we request the Chief Minister to take a decision in this regard at the Central Government level first. This is because in the past two years the Centre released a huge amount of funds for the Ganga Project. However, the Centre is yet to release a single penny to control floods and erosion by the Brahmaputra in Assam. What is strange is that the State BJP is yet to oppose this attitude towards Assam by the Centre. We doubt the goodwill of the Centre in so far taming the Brahmaputra is concerned. This is because Chi is erecting a dam at the source of the Brahmaputra. The situation is fraught with the risk of change of course by the river, scarcity of water in the river and even overflow of water. Former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi did inform Prime Minister rendra Modi of all these issues on November 29, 2014. He requested Modi to hold bipartite talks with Chi in this connection. Gogoi had also informed Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati in writing, but to little avail. Gogoi also told Modi when the latter was on his way to Beijing. I myself raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha so as to draw the attention of the Union Water Resources Minister, but to no avail. Thus we, and the people of the State, have every reason take the announcement as a gimmickry.”