Erosion hit public resort to oil blockade

DUBRUGARH, August 19: Residents of several villages of the Rohmaria area have resorted to an indefinite oil blockade at an oil rig located in the place, demanding immediate erosion-control measures and thus save property worth hundreds of crores of rupees on the northeastern fringes of Dibrugarh. Lending "unstinted support" to the agitation, the Dibrugarh district unit of Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chhatra Parishad on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner here, urging the Assam government to initiate urgent steps on erosion control at Rohmaria. The AJYCP has warned that unless the people's demands are met, the agitation would intensify and spread to other areas of the district. The Brahmaputra has been eroding hundreds of acres of prime agricultural land on its south bank around Rohmaria over the past several years. The situation has deteriorated since last year, and at present, the erosion is steadily eating away dozens of bighas of land everyday. Last year, the historic Tamuli Ali (which once connected Dibrugarh with Tinsukia) was eroded by the Brahmaputra near Oakland. Moreover, since last year, hundreds of ethnic Assamese families have been rendered homeless by erosion at Rohmaria. The district administration has offered a pittance in the name of rehabilitating the homeless (each family was given Rs 1,000 and seven sheets of corrugated iron roofing), which has infuriated the farmers. The state flood control minister, Promode Gogoi told the people of Rohmaria last year that the state government could do nothing to control erosion unless the Centre provided the funds. He went on to comment on the Brahmaputra's "general southward trend" and that the only remedy was multipurpose hydro projects (each costing upwards of Rs 10,000 crore) in Arunachal Pradesh.