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Assam : Reprisal fear in strife zone - Dimasa war cry |
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A cacophony of discordant voices has drowned cries for restoration of peace in Karbi Anglong district of Assam and raised fears of another Dimasa reprisal against the arson by suspected Karbi militants.
The Jadikhe Naisho Hoshom, which is the apex organisation of the Dimasas, blamed ‘cowardly acts’ by alleged Karbi miscreants for the fresh spell of ethnic discord in Karbi Anglong. Suspected Karbi militants lobbed a grenade at the Diphu residence of Sailen Hasnu, president of the Karbi Anglong unit of the organisation.
In a statement, the Jadikhe Naisho Hoshom described this incident, the quit notice issued to Dimasa residents of Diphu’s Amolapatty locality and the burning of houses on Nov. 19 as instances of extreme provocation.
A new outfit, that calls itself the Karbi Solidarity Troops, is behind the quit notice.
The Karbis are in a majority in Karbi Anglong, while the Dimasas dominate the adjacent North Cachar Hills district. At the epicentre of the ethnic conflict are the militant United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), which represents the Karbis, and the Dima Halam Daoga, a Dimasa group. However, the police and security forces suspect that the Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front masterminded the recent incidents.
Barak dam : Bangla nod for joint inspection with India
Bangladesh has agreed to New Delhi’s proposal of a joint inspection of the Barak dam project site at Tipaimukh, on the border of Manipur and Assam. The joint visit, India hopes, will remove the latest hassle dogging this Rs 5,500-crore scheme.
The new Union Minister for Water Resources, Santosh Mohan Dev, said in Silchar on Nov. 20 that he would accompany his Bangladeshi counterpart on the inspection tour of the site as well as the lower course of the Barak river.
His mission, he said, would be to remove Dhaka’s misgivings about this long-delayed project which has been hanging fire since 1978 when it was first conceived.
Dev hinted that the joint inspection was likely to take place towards the end of next month. Since early this year, various political parties and NGOs in Bangladesh have been raising objections to the construction of the dam.
Dhaka’s objection springs from the fear among a section of its people that the mammoth dam at the confluence of the Barak and Tuivai rivers might turn vast stretches of agricultural land along the lower course of the Barak river, in western Bangladesh, arid.
Earlier, even Manipur had been opposed to the project, apprehending loss of land because of submergence following the construction of the dam. The project was held up for long because of the state’s opposition. However, the state government subsequently relented.
The multipurpose Barak dam project was mooted with a view to controlling floods in south Assam, generating of a whopping 1,500 MW of hydel power and setting up a network of irrigation channels downstream.
The height of the Barak dam at Tipaimukh is estimated to be 162.8 metres with a reservoir of 8.32 lakh hectare metres from where the water would be released if and when required by the neighbouring states as well as by Bangladesh.
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