Guwahati, June 9: Almost seven years after militants cut short Sanjoy Ghose’s pathbreaking work in Majuli, Assam police are set to launch a campaign to fill the vacuum created by the abduction and murder of the man who roused the islanders out of slumber and made them aware of their rights. “The social mobilisation campaign of Assam, to be launched shortly, aims to bring about a sea change in the lives of people of the world’s largest river island,” director-general of police P.V. Sumant said.
He described the mobilisation campaign as an effort to involve police personnel in the task of changing the lives of the residents of Majuli, which remains backward in spite of its unique heritage.
The campaign, to be implemented in three phases in consonance with the Sarba Siksha Abhijan, will target schoolchildren first.
For the residents of Majuli, the police’s initiative will be a resumption of the mission started by Ghose, who was the general secretary of the Association of Voluntary Agencies for Rural Development in the Northeast when he was abducted by Ulfa militants and killed.
Suspected of being an agent of the Research and Analysis Wing, he was abducted from Majuli on July 4, 1997. The social activist had ruffled the Ulfa’s feathers by mobilising 30,000 people, mostly women and children, for the campaign to protect a 1.7-kilometre stretch of the island from erosion by the Brahmaputra.
It is believed that some contractors, who perceived the anti-erosion scheme as a challenge to their primacy, turned the Ulfa against Ghose. The contractors used to regularly contribute to the Ulfa coffers. They were also upset with Ghose because he used to publish a bulletin, mentioning the development schemes sanctioned by the government and the money earmarked or released for the purpose. Dissemination of such information affected the contractor-bureaucrat-militant nexus, which used to siphon off the funds.
A senior police official said nine clusters — Bongaon, Raonapar, Kamalabari, Garmurh, Rangchari, Jengrai, Nayabazar, Dakhin Ahatguri and Sadhusapori — had been selected for the first phase of the new project on the basis of their accessibility during floods. Majuli invariably witnesses floods between July and September.
The first phase of the project envisages interaction between the police and schoolchildren. Police officials will carry kits containing storybooks, badges and items for various games in a bid to break the ice. Phase II of the project will be an extension of the first part with the additional involvement of teachers.
Under Phase III, police officials will address two specific issues — misconceptions about the police and the importance of community participation in prevention of crime.