People apprehensive of floods in Rongpur area

SILCHAR, Aug 21: Within a year of its construction by the Water Resources Department, the bund constructed in the Angarjur area broke recently. The rising level of the Barak River has increased the risk of flooding the area. Sources said the people in the area are keeping their fingers crossed with the sudden spate in the river and rains lashing down almost everyday.

Sources said that the bund was constructed from SLPW road up to Madhuramukh at three different places but went under water completely and the river waters percolating through these holes are can inundate large stretches of land in greater Rangpur area.

It was reported that the Water Resources Department under NREGS had taken up bund construction in Rangpur Village Panchayat under Udharband Assembly Constituency of Cachar district on February 18, 2008. The total expenditure of the project was ascertained to be Rs 13.83 lakh. The work was under the supervision of SE Afsan Hussain Laskar. But the local people here alleged that the local Rangpur panchayat secretary Debashish Dev and Munna Singh, representative of MLA Ajit Singh, had misutilized the fund. It was charged that Dev and Singh had prepared master roll and job cards against fictitious names and somehow completed the work of setting down soil on the embankment areas and installed small pipes instead of culverts at the end of Angarjur street. This resulted in narrow breaches at several places on the bund. Sources further said the overall flood situation is serious and a little rise in the level of Barak will lead to floods in Rangpur, Angarjur, Majhargram, Karatigram, Shimultala, Arkatipur, Gosiapur, Moinarbond etc. The flood will also affect the National Highway and Silchar-Imphal land route connection. Even air transport will face problems since Kumbhirgram Airport lies on the same route at the distant end. THE SENTINEL