Assam: Flood-hit villagers of Laika-Dodhia set up relief camps near DC office

Tinsukia: The inhabitants of Laika and Dodhia villages in Tinsukia district have set up relief camps close to the Tinsukia District Commissioner's Office to raise demands for their immediate rehabilitation by the authorities. The villagers who have been protesting since the last seven days recently set up their relief camps in Lezaihola Borguri situated close to the DC's office so as to protest and place their demands for proper living conditions, which as they say, the government has failed to provide.

As per reports, the two villages of Laika and Dodhia suffer from frequent floods and erosion every year, but allegedly nothing has been done by the state government and district authorities in order to alleviate their stress. The villagers were especially affected this year when monsoon floods in the district destroyed their homes repeatedly since June. A total of 1480 families from the two villages have been said to lose their homes to the floods, which also resulted in the deaths of many, over the years.

Claiming that they have not received anything towards their welfare from the government, Apio Taid, a member of the Laika Dodhia Rehabilitation Committee stated that a 320-hectare land was earlier allotted for the villagers at Oguri in the Digboi range, but the Tinsukia district administration has not yet acted upon it. The land grant came after Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal-led BJP government assured complete rehabilitation to the people. Even an allotment of Rs. 10 Crore was added for rehabilitation programme by the state government in the budget, the Committee member informed, but nothing substantiated out of it.

The inhabitants of Laika and Dodhia originally settled into the flood-affected regions from the Murkongselek area of Dhemaji district after the great 1950 earthquake. As of now, they have been living in the two villages of Tinsukia-district for seventy years. 

Apart from demanding stable homelands, the villagers have repeatedly demanded water and medical facilities to the local authorities, but local MP Binod Hazarika has not taken any initiative upon their concerns, Taid stated. In case their demands are not attended to immediately, Taid said that their movement will be further intensified. 

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