Subdivisions: Dispur breaks word, ignores demands

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, June 27: Despite demands from various corners, the Assam government continues to overlook demands for creation of more subdivisions, thus making the 'Raijor Podulit Raijor Sorkar' campaign a farce..

In the last fourteen years, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has made a number commitments promising to meet some of the demands, but all those have remained on paper.

A glaring example of neglect is the case of harkatia in Dibrugarh district, one of the highest revenue earning areas of the State.

The demand for creation of a subdivision at harkatia dates back to 1987.

In a report to the State government in 1997, the then Dibrugarh Deputy Commissioner had stated that creation of the harkatia subdivision is "both desirable and justifiable".

"To bring the administration nearer to the people, creation of new civil subdivision deserves consideration. There will be no shortage of land for the purpose," the DC had said.

It is reported that a person from harkatia has to travel 60 kms to the Dibrugarh district headquarter for any official work. The distance to the headquarter from some key areas of the district are - Duliajan 62 kms, Tingkhong 80 kms and mrup 80 kms.

A local official cited that if a civil subdivision is created at harkatia, the distance a person has to travel will be shortened by 50 kms. Besides, harkatia has close proximity with some key industries like OIL, Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation, Joipur coal fields and the mrup thermal power plant. The population of the proposed subdivision is nearly 15 lakh.

A number of memorandums have been submitted by local organizations to the government pressing for a subdivision, but to no avail.

Similarly, even the Chief Minister's own constituency Titabor, which was declared a subdivision years back, is yet to be a full-fledged subdivision.

"How can the CM expect the administration to come closer to the people in such a scerio?" wondered a local at harkatia.