Financial assistance offered to family members of Dulal Sarma

Financial assistance offered to family members of Dulal Sarma

Our Correspondent

MANGALDAI: During the peak hour of Assam Agitation in 1980, a youth with feeling of high emotion and active involvement in Assam Agitation gave a new dimension by writing “Tez Dim, Tel Nidio” (I shall give blood, but not Oil) with his own blood. The State government on April 18 imposed curfew in Guwahati city following committing a lot of atrocities on the peaceful picketers at Narengi who were opposing the transportation of crude oil from Assam. On the next early morning on April 19, lakhs of people coming from different corners of the city and outskirts spontaneously came out to the street to defy the curfew thereby creating a record in the history of Assam Agitation.

A 20 year old Dulal Sarma, son of marginal farmer Chandra Kanta Sarma and Hema Prabha Devi of village Dabutola near Kabirali under Kalaigaon Police station could not resist his temptation to join the unprecedented picketing in Guwahati as his elder brother was the Commander of the local unit of the Voluntary Force of AASU and joined the agitation. On April 23 while being a member of the large sea of agitators to take part in the road blockade at Chandmari in Guwahati, Dulal Sarma all of a sudden cut his chest with a blade and wrote “Tez Dim, Tel Nidio’ in bold letters with his blood on the main road.

Though Dulal Sarma was immediately taken to the Guwahati Medical College Hospital at Pan Bazar in a critical stage, this incident gave a new dimension to the agitation as the spot in Chanmari immediately was transformed into a holy place and the agitators started lighting earthen lamps, incense sticks and start indefinite devotional prayers.

It is very hard to believe that though his widely talked sacrifice added a new enthusiasm and emotion to the Assam agitation, till date not a single leader of the Assam Agitation, the leaders of the AGP or the present BJP or even the AASU ever have visited the family members.

The schemes declared for the sufferers of Assam agitation too failed to reach the family members of Dulal Sarma. However, the All Guwahati Students Union few years has constructed a memorial at Chandmari inscribing “Tez Dim, Tel Nidio’ mentioning his name but without his address which often creates confusion on the proper identity of this ‘unsung hero’.

Last year at the initiative of the members of Mangaldai Media Circle and former activists of Assam Movement could find out the wife of Dulal Sarma at Mandakata and managed to offer some financial help. The Lalmati Durga Mandir Committee at Borsojai in Guwahati this year has also offered her felicitation and offered an amount of Rs. 20,000 as a mark of solidarity. On seeing the poor plight of the family members of late Dulal Sarma-the forgotten hero of Assam Movement, a promising lady industrialist of repute Hema Prabha Devi on the very first day of the Bhogali Bihu on January 15 met Krishna Sarma at Mandakata in North Guwahati area and offered her an amount of Rs. 20,000 as a token of gratitude to the rare sacrifice of Dulal Sarma.

Accompanied by the office bearers of premier NGO ‘Mukti’ namely Renu Dutta Barua, Asomi Dutta Barua and Manjit Sarma of Guwahati, Hema Prabha Devi also assured to engage her son in private sector industry and to institute an award every year to make the sacrifice of Dulal Sarma alive so that the younger generation could realize the spirit of sacrifice and patriotism reflected by Dulal Sarma. Office bearers of Mangaldai Media Circle namely Hitesh Hazarika, Dwipen Konwar and Bhargab Kumar Das, former activists of Assam Movement Hiren Saharia and Lankeswar Baishya also attended the function at her residence.

Also read: Assam News

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