Jolt to save-Sandhya-Kanta-Lalita movement

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, February 14: The 'save Sandhya, Kanta and Lalita' mission that was started by the Krishak Shramik Unyan Sangram Samittee, Assam (KSUSSA) received a major jolt when a gang of miscreants threatened KSUSSA general secretary Indrajit Sarma of dire consequences on the night of February 12 if he did not call off their agitation scheduled on February 13.

State Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who sees fincial affluence of the people of the state in girls' hairdos, should have seen the kind of law and order prevailing in Guwahati from this incident.

The KSUSSA had to call off their agitation, and instead lodged an FIR in that connection with Dispur police station.

The confluence of three streams - Sandhya, Kanta and Lalita - in Guwahati makes the rivulet Bahini that flows by the side of the Bashistha Mandir. The rivulet is under rigorous torment of a racket of stone crushers every now and then, illegally, in the upstream - at the source of the Bahini. So much so that Sandhya, Kanta and Lalita stopped flowing, so did the Bahini.

According to KSUSSA president Dharanidhar Deka and general secretary Indrajit Sarma, the source of Bahini is the confluence of Sandhya, Kanta and Lalita - in the upstream. The Bahini used to flow throughout the year as the three streams used to feed the rivulet with water, day in, day out. However, things have changed now. A racket of unscrupulous stone crushers continues to cause blasting of explosives to crack stones in the area so as to supply them for construction purposes. All these activities are going on right under the nose of the forest and police administrations in Guwahati. The streams have been blocked, and that has led the Bahini go dry. There are roads for plying of trucks and people over the three streams."     

According to Deka and Sarma, the situation is fraught with the risk of flash floods in the rainy season when water continues to keep flowing from the Meghalaya side. The three blocked streams may be in spate after the onset of the monsoons and breach the roads built on them. "That may cause a disaster, leading to loss of life and property. The safety of hundreds of families residing on either side of the Bahini river is at stake," they added.

"This's not all. The forest cover in the area is fraying fast. Some people engaged in the illegal stone crushing in the area are Aravinda Rohang, Madan Mahanta, Ramen Choudhury, Munin Bora, Dharani Kalit and Tapas Saikia," they said.

The Samittee recently submitted a memorandum to the Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister of the state and the Kamrup (Metro) Deputy Commissioner, and appealed them to save  Sandhya, Kanta and Lalita from the wrath of the racket. It had also appealed to the government to clean the area surrounding the temple and conduct eviction drives to clear the river banks of illegal settlers.