DIBRUGARH, June 26 ? It took no less a person than the Prime Minister himself to personally intervene and come to the rescue of Rohmaria, a place where the Brahmaputra has been gobbling away square kilometre upon square kilometre of fertile farmlands since the past several years. It is learnt from a top official of the Assam Government that the Centre this week has agreed to provide the required Rs 406 crore for the comprehensive Rohmaria and upstream protection work. The scheme was prepared in 1998 by the Dibrugarh embankment & drainage division of the State flood control department. Work on the project is likely to begin in November this year.
Rohmaria, located about 20 km north-east from here, was once a prosperous locality of 35,000 people, mostly native Assamese. The area was regarded as the ?rice bowl? of the undivided Dibrugarh district. Since 1995, the Brahmaputra began eroding its south bank from Rungagora to Maijan, and ever since, the river has had a free run in its menace. All this while, the authorities could do little more than make up palliative ?protection works? and half hearted rehabilitation measures for the river-evicted families, numbering more than 600 at last count.
Even as this game of one-upmanship between New Delhi and Dispur amused observers, the erosion affected families of Rohmaria took to several agitation programmes. The agitation includes an ongoing blockade of an Oil India Limited installation in the area, at Khagorijan. The siege there was laid on August 15, 1997, and is yet to be lifted by the Rohmaria Garakhahania Pratirudh Sangram Samiti. This January, a desperate OIL tried to mollify the Rohmaria citizens by announcing an intention of parting with Rs 20 lakh to help build some experimental anti-erosion structures. But locals of Rohmaria were not satisfied at the pace of progress of work, neither did they believe that the measure would be of any use to check the Brahmaputra. Work on this earlier commenced with much fanfare on January 16 this year by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi himself. But with dissatisfaction gaining ground among the Rohmaria public, further work on the experiment was forced to a grinding halt. Now that the Centre has agreed to provide the money and Rohmaria protection work is slated to commence by November this year, everybody is breathing easy.