Lakhimpur Soil Conservation Division in shambles for alleged lack of government attention

A CORRESPONDENT

LAKHIMPUR: The Divisional Office of the Lakhimpur Soil Conservation Division is in a pitiable condition due to alleged lack of government attention.

The Soil Conservation Department came into being in Assam in order to transform some aspiring objectives into reality. The main objectives of the department are to reduce any forms of soil erosion, to increase agricultural productivity in sustained manner without deteriorating the soil health, to ensure efficient use of rainfall with developing of water harvesting structures such as farm ponds, check dams, nalla bunds and percolation tanks.

Such activities on the part of the department concerned are the need of the hour in a district like Lakhimpur which has faced consecutive soil erosion problem and unprecedented floods. Moreover, these activities of the department are essential in the district as the economics of the district is based on the agriculture sector. But such activities of the division in Lakhimpur have turned to be distant dreams only because of the alleged lackadaisical attitude on the part of the State Government and head of the department concerned.

At present, over 24 posts are lying vacant under the establishment of the Division since many years. Of these posts, the post of Assistant Soil Conservation Officer (ASCO), which is just after the Divisional Officer’s (DO) post, has been vacant since April this year at a time when the DO has been quite busy in NRC update works. There are two Range offices under the Division, one in Dhakuakhana and the other at Harmoty. The matter of concern is that the post of Ranger of Harmty Range office has been lying vacant since April 18 while the post of Ranger of the Dhakuakhana Range office has been vacant since January 30, 2017. The post of surveyor has been vacant since August 14, 2017 while the post of only one Junior Assistant has been lying vacant since 2014. Similarly, 16 posts of field worker out of 33 and two Grade IV posts have been vacant since many years.

On the other hand, the infrastructure of the Divisional Office and its residential quarters situated at Japisajia, just 3 km away from North Lakhimpur town, is decaying. The infrastructure was constructed during the 7th decade of the last century. At present, the walls of the residential quarters are deteriorating and the rain water fills the houses during the rainy days. Rain water falls in several rooms of the head office too. The employees of the establishment are performing their regular duties under such conditions of the office. A resident of a quarter, who is one of the employees of the division, informed this correspondent that he had been staying in the quarter for years by repairing the quarter frequently. Two quarters are not even fit to be used.

Though several applications were submitted by the Division during the past years seeking fund for the reconstruction of the office establishments, the State Government and the departments concerned were still unmoved in this regard.

Also read: Muster roll employees of the Soil Conservation department deprived of salary for 23 months