Cost of an Assam bandh is Rs 6,050 lakh per day

Guwahati, March 26: That the bandh culture, which a whole gamut of organizations are bent on perpetuating in Assam, may not be news, but the fact that during an Assam bandh the State loses Rs 6,050 lakh every day is some news – disconcerting and depressing.

If there is an Assam bandh, a single day’s loss amounts to a mammoth Rs 6,050 lakh, and a total of 17 such bandhs hit the State last year causing a loss of Rs 1,02,850 lakh to the State. This was revealed by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary in the Assam Legislative Assembly on Monday. He, on behalf of the State Home Minister (which the Chief Minister himself is), was responding to a poser by BJP MLA Mril Saikia from the Khumtai constituency of upper Assam.

“According to the Gross State Domestic Product estimate, the total loss during an Assam bandh is Rs 6,050 lakh. The Kerala High Court had banned bandh, calling it unconstitutiol. The Supreme Court too had agreed with the high court’s ruling. In  accordance with what the Supreme Court said, the Assam government is taking steps to crack down on the bandh culture. The apex court’s observation has been communicated to all district SPs,” Patowary said.

The minister added that in 2012, a PIL – Arun Pathak vs the State of Assam & Organizations – was filed in the Gauhati High Court, and that at that time the State government had said that it was taking the matter seriously to ban bandhs. “The State government had taken the matter seriously when a PIL was filed at the Gauhati High Court against bandh. The government had told the Gauhati High Court that an Act would be put in place to curb bandhs. A drafting committee headed by Justice (retd) KN Saikia was formed for the purpose. The draft of the bill was given to the Gauhati High Court. But the court wanted some modifications, and asked for a reexamition of the bill. This is the reason why the State government formed a task force in 2016, and it came up with the Assam Prohibition & Prevention of Bandh Bill, 2017. This is under our consideration now,” he said.

According to the information revealed in the Assembly, there were 18 local bandhs, 42 district bandhs, four BTAD (Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District) bandhs, and as many as 184 tiol highway blockades in Assam last year.

These figures are a clear pointer to the enormity of bandhs in a State that has all along cried for progress and development beyond such debilitating culture of bandhs that serve no purpose at all except for playing havoc with the lives of commoners, especially daily wage-earners. Is the Sarbanda Sonowal government really bothered?