GUWAHATI, Jan 20 — Despite an order by the Gauhati High Court and declaration of the Borsola Beel and Sarusola Beel, the natural reservoir for storm water drainage of Guwahati city, as reserved wetlands, the concerned authorities have so far failed to evict the encroachers on to prevent fresh encroachments on the wetlands. The inaction of the authorities concerned may aggravate the water-logging problem in the central Guwahati areas in the coming rainy season. Not to speak of evicting the encroachers from the Sarusola Beel area, the authorities concerned have even failed to prevent fresh earth filling on the beel. The residents of Chatribari, Tokoubari, Krishna Nagar and Rehabari areas of the city filed a public petition to the Kamrup Deputy Commissioner yesterday, demanding immediate steps for the protection and preservation of the Sarusola beel.
The petition pointed out that the Borsola and Sarusola beels were declared as reserved wetlands on August 31 last year by the Kamrup Deputy Commissioner and their boundaries were also determined. Both the beels are of great importance for protecting the environment and these wetlands also serve as natural reservoirs. Though the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has constructed the boundary wall of the Borsola beel, in respect of Sarusola beel, the authorities failed to take any step and the declaration of reserved wetland remains on paper only. The petition revealed that because of inaction of the authorities concerned, large scale encroachment is going on and some people also resorted to dumping of garbage of the beel. The management of the KC Das Commerce College has started earth filling in the beel area despite the order on July 19, 1995, by which the State government cancelled the land allotment to the college and several other organisations and institutions on the beel. The petition further pointed out that encroachment on the beel would create severe water-logging problem in vast areas of the city including Panbazar, Lakhtokia, Chatribari, Athgaon, Tokoubari etc.
The petition also demanded that the district administration should remove all the encroachments and construct the boundary wall of the Sarusola beel and steps should be taken to stop the management of the KC Das Commerce College from filling up fresh areas of the beel. It may be mentioned here that way back in 1995, the Revenue (Settlement) department of the Government of Assam cancelled the allotments on the Borsola and Sarusola beels but the order remained on paper only as the concerned authorities failed to take effective steps to execute the order. Same is the position in respect of the Gauhati High Court order of January 12, 2000 in response to a public interest litization filed by Sri Biplabananda Choudhury. The court, in its order, said that the government would take all necessary steps for preservation of Solabeel and to keep it clean.