Mistakes Galore In Official Website of Darrang District Administration

MANGALDAI: The State Government has been spending a huge amount of money from the public exchequer for the promotion of tourism in and outside the country, and Priyanka Chopra has already been appointed as the Brand Ambassador of Assam Tourism. No doubt, these are some effective measures taken up by the government. But the role of the district administration in displaying accurate information about the district is found to be wanting. The moot poser: Do the official websites of government departments or the district administrations contain accurate information?

The Darrang district administration perhaps has no idea of the origin of the district, the status of Orang National Park and other vital information about the district. As per history, Darrang district was created with its headquarters at Mangaldai in 1833 covering the areas of the present districts of Darrang, Udalguri, Sonitpur and Biswanath Chariali. But the colonial British administrators, in 1835, shifted the headquarters from Mangaldai to Tezpur making Mangaldai a subdivision. However, in the official website of Darrang district administration at darrang.nic.in, the creation of the district has wrongly been mentioned as 1933 and shifting of the headquarters in 1935.

The Orang National Park — the only rhino-bearing area on the northern bank of River Brahmaputra — was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1985 and upgraded to the status of national park in 1999. Of late, the Park has also been declared as ‘Orang Tiger Reserve’. The district administration of Darrang in its official website has simply mentioned it as a sanctuary and asked the page visitors to contact the DFO, Western Assam Wildlife Division at Tezpur for accommodation in the forest bungalow. Significantly, the Park is under the jurisdiction of Mangaldai Wildlife Division at Darrang.

In the historic peasants uprising at Pothorughat in Darrang district on January 28, 1894, altogether 140 village farmers were brutally shot dead by the British; but in a bid to conceal the exact number of ‘Krishak Swahids’ as the British administrators did long back, the district administration mentioned the number of Krishak Swahids as 15 which is an evil design to stop Pothorughat from getting national honour and recognition.

As the administrators of the webpage of Darrang district administration seem to be indifferent in updating the webpage regularly, the webpage mentions Sunil Kumar as the Superintendent of Police of the district. Sunil Kumar had handed over the charge of Superintendent of Police of Darrang on January 29, 2017 and his successor has also been transferred. Perhaps the district administration has no information that Amrit Bhuyan is the 24th Superintendent of Police of Darrang district. On the other hand, though there is no any inspection bungalow of PWD or rest house in Hazarikapara in Sipajhar LAC, the webpage mentions its existence till date. A government bungalow at Hazarikapara was burnt to ashes long back in 1983.

In the recent general election, BJP candidate Dilip Saikia won by defeating his Congress rival. But the website still mentions former parliamentarian Ramen Deka as the Member of Lok Sabha from Mangaldai HPC instead of Dilip Saikia.

Also Read: Darrang district administration conducts eviction drive against illegal encroachers