HT Correspondent
BISWANATH CHARIALI, May 1: Solmari village which comes under no 1 Sootea Gaon Panchayat and is located on the southern part of Sootea is on the verge of extinction due to severe erosion caused by the mighty river Brahmaputra every year. A large portion of the village has already been swiped away by the erosion. The distance between Biswanath-Panpur embankment and Solmari village is a few metres. The villagers have been passing sleepless nights with the fright that at any moment their village could be engulfed by erosion.
A team of AAMSU (All Assam Muslim Students’ Union) and ASSP (Assam Sankhya Laghu Sangram Parishad) headed by Fakir Ali and Nazir Ahmed visited the erosion site recently alleged that no higher officials from the Water Resources department of the state government had visited the erosion hit site neither had shown any initiative to resolve the burning issue. The team of delegates had made a humble appeal to the Water Resources minister Pijush Hazarika to visit the erosion hit site and take immediate steps to cope up with the situation as early as possible. The team further demanded to begin repairing work of the breached embankment with Jio bag technology before the summer season begins.
It is pertinent to mention here that the mighty river Brahmaputra flows through the southern part of Sootea-Biswanath and floods cause havoc every year in these areas. More than twenty villages of the Southern part of Sootea under no 1 Sootea GP including Batihara, Bankamari, Singimari, Kalabil, Dhendakhuti, Bogoriaati, etc., had lost their existence and presently the mighty river flows on it. It is further worth mentioning that the upgradation work of Biswanath-Panpur embankment is underway. The general people of South Sootea made a humble appeal to the department concerned and the construction authority to accomplish the work before the rainy season begins.