Kahikuchi depicts Dispur's failure

From our Correspondent

AZARA, April 8: Development is simply a non-happening at Kahikuchi in West Guwahati LAC during the past 15-year Congress rule in the State despite its prime location. A visitor sees Kahikuchi on his/her way to Guwahati from the airport.

This is an all-round backwardness with the place being afflicted by scarcity of potable water, lack of health facilities, lack of electricity connection, etc. Various schemes like hospitals, stages, community halls, Dr. Bhupen Hazarika Mukali Manchas, parks etc., were taken up during the past 15 years, but most of them failed to see light of the day. The work of a health sub-centre was started at Shyambhoomi here, but the project has been lying incomplete. MLA Hemanta Talukdar did lay the foundation stone of Rajiv Gandhi Sports Project at Shyambhoomi Playground in 2005. A decade has elapsed and the project failed to see light of the day. Rs 2 lakh was shown to have spent through Kahikuchi Gaon Panchayat, Rs 1 lakh through Kahikuchi Anchalik Panchayat and Rs 2 lakh through the Zila Parisahd for the development of the playground. However, there has been no development of the playground. The obvious question that arises is: where have the funds gone? Only Dispur can say.

Guwahati MP Bojaya Chakraborty also seems to be reluctant to develop the area. When she was Union Water Resources Minister in 2002, she did lay the foundation of a permanent stage at Shyambhoomi playground. Fourteen years has elapsed but the stage is yet to the see the light of the day.

On November 5, 2014 Dispur did lay the foundation stone of Dr. Bhupen Hazarika Mukali Mancha and that of a park associated with it at Shyambhoomi under the Mukhyamantir Swap Prakalpa. The stage was opened in 2015 when it was far from being complete. The mancha and the park are still incomplete.

There are many such projects which the government takes only to leave them either incomplete or abandoned. Public money is literally thrown down the drains in Assam.

Rajeswar Choudhury, a conscious citizen from the area, said: “False promises for the development of Kahikuchi galore in every election. No political representative accords importance to the area.”

There has been the demand for a park under the flyover at VIP Chowk from various organizations of the area. However, Dispur has washed its hand off the matter just by planting a few saplings. The look which the site wears is not that of a park. Street lights in the area were a matter of remote past, and as such all the areas near tiol Highway 37 is dark as soon as the sun sets.  This is not all. The lack of a proper draige system in the area also leads to water-logging during every monsoon.