Temporary protection given for immediate relief, permanent work to be done in winter, said Pijush at Betukandi

July 20: Minister of Water Resources, Pijush Hazarika came to Silchar on Wednesday. As per directions of Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, Minister Hazarika inspected the dysfunctional sluice gates and dykes in Cachar district. During the day, he went to the breached site of the dyke at Bethukandi in Silchar the breach of which by some miscreants resulted in the devastating flood in Silchar. 

“Today I visited the breached embankments site in Bethukandi, Cachar to inspect the ongoing reconstruction of the embankments by WR Dept. Our Dept. has been working on war footing mode to make arrangements for double resistance at this site,” reacted the minister. He further said, “Those arrested in connection with breach of Bethukandi dyke will be given strict punishment as per the provision of the law.” He stated that at present the work of the broken dykes and those in critical stage are done in a temporary manner at a war footing, but these would be repaired in a permanent manner during the winter.

The minister categorically stated, “Look, we have immediately filled up the breached portion of the dyke so that we can prevent any other catastrophe and movement of people can take place. This is a temporary protection which we have done. The permanent work of dyke could be done only in the winter. But if by chance, these temporary repairing works gets washed away due to fresh flood, then none should blame us because I have clarified that we have done temporary repairing.”

Earlier, Minister Hazarika inspected the dysfunctional Baleshwar & Fushkain sluice gates in Cachar near Indo-Bangla border in the afternoon. He directed the officials of Water Resource Department to repair the gates and make them operational as their dysfunctionality has caused devastating floods in the nearby areas. 

He also visited Borjurai area in Katigorah constituency, Cachar district today along with MLA Bijoy Malakar MLA to inspect the erosion caused by Barak River. He acknowledged that the Water Resource Department has been working relentlessly to prevent erosion at this site through geo bags & porcupine dam.

The Minister said, “Many sluice gates were dysfunctional since long. During the recent floods some other gates also became malfunctional. I have directed the concerned officials to repair the gates as the earliest. After that, we will also take up the issue of maintenance of the sluice gates. We will try our best so that due to breach in dykes people ought not suffer in the future.”