Safe drinking water, urban flooding top priorities for me in this election, says Cong candidate Mira Borthakur Goswami

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMarch 20, 2024

“This BJP government has not done anything for Guwahati. Major problems like the water crisis and urban flooding are untouched. The incumbent MP failed to submit her report card on development activities,” said Mira Borthakur Goswami, Congress candidate for the prestigious Guwahati Lok Sabha seat.

Safe drinking water, urban flooding and land pattas are the top priorities for the voters in the Guwahati constituency in the upcoming elections slated on May 7.

The prestigious Guwahati Lok Sabha constituency has 10 assembly segments- 13-Goalpara West, 15 Dudhnoi (Goalpara district), 27-Chamaria, 28-Boko-Chaugaon, 29- Palashbari (Kamrup rural) and 33-Dispur, 34-Dimoria, 35-New Guwahati, 36-Guwahati Central and 37-Jalukbari (Kamrup metro).

The constituency has a total number of voters of 20,19,444 including 993268 males and 1026118 females. The total number of polling stations is 2181.

Five major assembly segments are in the nerve centre of the state-Guwahati city, where job opportunity is a major factor.

“According to the latest estimate, the number of unemployed youth has gone up to 32,34,738. But the government had opened jobs for only 1 lakh youths. The government has failed in the creation of jobs in the past years,” Goswami said

Despite residing on the bank of the Brahmaputra, most residents of Guwahati do not have access to affordable portable water- a problem that will be an election issue in the constituency in this election.

Only 25 areas of the city have access to municipal water supply while a few households fall in areas that are covered by other government departments, including Public Health Engineering (PHE). 

A major chunk of city dwellers is dependent on expensive water being supplied by private parties.

In the last elections to Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC), the government assured the city dwellers of providing water connections from four projects funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). However, the bursting of water pipes in many places of the city forced the authorities to stop water supply connections in many places.

Congress candidate for Guwahati seat, Mera Borthakur Goswami said she would solve the water crisis immediately if voted to power.

“Our (Congress) government had brought the JICA project to provide 24X7 water supply in Guwahati city. However, the project was delayed during the tenure of the BJP government. The government should have commissioned the project by now,” Goswami said.

“I have a vision document for Guwahati that I will release after filing the nomination. I won’t make a tall promise. Let my work do the talking,” Goswami also said.

Her contender BJP candidate Bijuli Kalita Medhi refrained from giving any direct reply when asked about her plan to alleviate the water crisis.

I will tell you after filing my nomination only. At this hour, I won’t make any comment,” Medhi said.

It’s unbelievable that a city like Guwahati which is the gateway to the Northeast, has been facing a crisis of potable water for so many years now. Water being the most necessary in a family, should have been the priority of the government,” Goswami said.

Like the crisis of potable water, water logging during the rainy season is another issue for Guwahatians. An intricate network of rivers and beels (wetlands) forms the natural drainage system of Guwahati city on the banks of the Brahmaputra River. Last few decades, these water bodies have been encroached upon, thereby contributing towards an increased incidence of urban flooding.

“For it, the Bharalu River to be cleaned and dug scientifically. But the government is active when there is flooding, there is no work being done in winter. It shows their sincerity towards the issue,” she said.

Though the BJP had promised to grant land pattas to 85 thousand residents of the city in the last two elections, it has done nothing for it. Instead, the government bulldozed more than thousands of families for encroachment of land in government land like Silsako.

“We can’t provide land pattas to the people unless the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation is amended. We can give them temporary settlement of land after the amendment,” Goswami also said referring to the misery of the evicted people,” she said.

Referring to Silsako eviction, she said the government should bulldoze Ginger, Ajmal, Singhal and Narayan Deka’s buildings at first. But they evicted the commoners.

Apart from Guwahati city, Goswami also said she has a plan for a food processing unit in Dudhnoi which is considered South East Asia’s largest banana market.

“For the development of the rural sector, we have to set up such agro-based units and cold storages,” she added.