Gogoi breaks another promise, again

Rehabilitation of erosion-affected families

Proposals for 39,450 families in 16 districts gathering dust despite budget allotments

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, Oct 29: If ‘promises are made to be broken’, then the Tarun Gogoi government seems to be following the dictum in toto.

Soon after coming to power for the third consecutive term in 2011, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had promised to rehabilitate people rendered homeless by erosion.

It took his government more than four years to notify a scheme – christened as the Chief Minister’s Special Scheme for Rehabilitation of Erosion Affected Families in Assam.

However, though the scheme was notified in March this year “to rehabilitate homeless and landless people living on embankments/roadsides, educatiol institutions, religious organizations, char or forest lands”, not a single erosion-affected homeless or landless family has got any assistance under the scheme till date.

Till August this year, the government had received proposals for rehabilitating 39,450 families in sixteen districts. The maximum number of proposals was from Barpeta (11,735), followed by Lakhimpur (8,928) and Morigaon (7,307).

According to the notification issued eight months back, landless families were to receive a plot of one bigha, Rs 75,000 cash to build a house, besides three bighas of agricultural land (or an equivalent fincial grant).

In fact, the government had earmarked Rs 5 crore each in the annual budgets for the fincial years 2014-15 and 2015-16 for the purpose.

The homeless families were to get fincial assistance up to Rs 2 lakh to construct a house.

The selection of beneficiaries was to be done by a committee comprising of local administration heads and elected representatives.

Official sources admitted that nothing much has moved since the notification was issued in March this year.

Now, with only four months left before the State goes to polls, it is anybody’s guess as to whether the Tarun Gogoi government will be able to fulfill the promise made to erosion-hit people in the State.

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