Will Dispur include Barpathar in development map?

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, July17: The link road between the Barpathar area and Bashistha Mandir in Guwahati looks like a cal. Barpathar is a hamlet located along the Assam-Meghalaya border in Dispur LAC with a cosmopolitan population.

For the hamlet poor communication is the mother of all problems as it multiplies a number of other problems like excessive costs of goods due to high transportation costs, high school dropout rates, and the like. The road leading to the hamlet from Bashistha Mandir remains muddy with its craters filled with waters throughout the monsoons.

 It is a place where problems were left to multiply for a decade, thanks to former Dispur MLA Akon Bora who preferred to look the other way when problems were there right under his nose.

Borpathar is just a km away from Bashistha Mandir in Guwahati. The area has no streets, facilities for potable water, education facilities, health facilities, no proper draige and sewerage system, etc. The area has over 1,800 voters who have to hear hollow promises from political parties and candidates before every election.

A case study will suffice what the situation at Borpathar is exactly like. A few years back then local MLA Akon Bora constructed the road to Borpathar. It was a shoddy piece of work on the part of the former MLA. As though to cap it, the road has lost the very sign of the work as stone-laden trucks from Meghalaya continue to ply over it. The local people have alleged that they did move their former MLA seeking a solution to the problem. He, however, paid no heed to the problem.

Another problem that has been kept lingering over the years is the approach road to Borpathar from Bashistha Mandir. The road is often closed by the Army that has a base camp there. The Army claims that the land which the road skes through is theirs. There are occasiol feuds between the Army and the civilians when the road is closed by the former.

Let alone the problem existing with the Army, the road is inundated when there is spell of rains. Even when there is no rain and when rainwater in other areas in the city flows away, the deep craters in this road continue to remain filled with water. The people of the hamlet had all along been blaming it on the former Congress MLA Akon Bora for their plight. However, now they someone else to blame as BJP’s Atul Bora came out winner from Dispur LAC in the recently held Assembly election in the State. Will Bora or BJP-led Dispur rise to the occasion?