Lack of flood package, Centre's reluctance irks AASU, AJYCP

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, August 1: The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) wants to know as to what holds the Centre back from declaring the twin problems of floods and erosion in Assam a tiol problem.

In a statement issued to the media today, AASU president Dipanka Kumar th said the Centre is prompt to announce hefty packages when there are floods in states like Kashmir, Bihar, Uttarakhand etc. “Union Home Minister Rajth Singh paid an aerial visit to flood-affected areas and some of the relief camps in Assam. He however stopped short of announcing a flood package for the State. Isn’t Assam part on the tion? Around 36 lakh people of the State have been affected and lakhs of hectares of land have been gobbled up by the voracious Brahmaputra and its tributaries. Even after witnessing such devastation if the Union Home Minister stops short of announcing a package for floods and declare the problem a tiol one, it’s really unfortute,” the AASU president said, and added: “What holds the Centre back from declaring floods and erosion in Assam a tiol problem is still not known.”

In the same vein, the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva-Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) also wanted to know as to why the Union Home Minister fell short  of announcing a package for floods in Assam, and what continued to prevent the Centre from declaring floods and erosion in the State a tiol problem.    

So far, the Assam Legislative Assembly took as many as three resolutions to get the twin problems of flood and erosion a tiol problem. A number of State Assembly delegations also met the successive Prime Ministers and Union Home Ministers in this regard many a time, but to little avail. What is surprising is that declaring flood and erosion in Assam as a tiol problem was very much in the BJP’s manifesto in the last Assam Assembly election. Even after making such an election promise, how come Rajth Singh says that ‘the declaration of Assam flood and erosion as a tiol problem is not going to benefit Assam in any away?’     

Many in the State like to say that the people of Delhi and other States in North and South India do not know what erosion in Assam exactly is, for there is no erosion by rivers in North and South India. “They always want to club erosion with flood even as erosion is far more severe than floods,” they said.