Declare Pothorughat as a national memorial: MP Dilip Saikia in Lok Sabha
Mangaldai Parliamentarian Dilip Saikia demanded the Union Government to declare the historic Peasants uprising at Pothorughat as a national memorial and to transform it into a tourist centre.
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MANGALDAI: Mangaldai Parliamentarian Dilip Saikia on Tuesday demanded the Union Government to declare the historic Peasants uprising at Pothorughat as a national memorial and to transform it into a tourist centre. Bringing a notice in the Lok Sabha under rule 377 on Decrmber 13, Mangaldai Parliamentarian Dilip Saikia appealed the government to declare Pothorughat Krishak Swahid Memorial as a national memorial.
The Government of India in 1951 had enacted 'The Jalliwanwala Bagh National Memorial Act' and declared it as a national memorial. Though the peasants uprising at Pothorughat in Assam took place on January 28 of 1894, twenty five years ahead of Jalliwanwala Bagh massacre, but due to the negligence and indifferent attitude of the then governments, political leaders, historians even the intellectuals, the supreme sacrifice of 140 Krishaks failed to get its mention in the pages of the history of country's freedom struggle. Another significant aspect of the Pothorughat peasant uprising is that the Krishaks of Darrang, while participating in the uprising, adopted the policy of nonviolence, which was later introduced by the Father of the Nation during the freedom struggle.
However, at the initiative of the then Governor of Assam Lt Gen SK Sinha, the army constructed a Krishak Swahid memorial at Pothorughat in 2001 and since then the army has also been celebrating the Krishak Swahid Divas every year with full military honour and style. This Krishak Swahid memorial is the only of its kind in the entire country constructed by the army in memory of civilian or krishak. Various social organizations of Darrang district namely Mangaldai Media Circle, Pothoru Samanwaya Gosthi, Darrang and Udalguri district committees of Journalist Union of Assam (JAA), Crystal Vision have highly appreciated the initiative of Mangaldai Parliamentarian Dilip Saikia.
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