Where is BJP’s poriborton? Assam asks as floods create havoc

The angry residents of Assam, who are battling rains and floods, questioned the intention of the BJP government to solve their problems.

Guwahati, June 15: More than a year ago when the Bharatiya Janata Party unseated the then ruling Congress to form its first government in Assam, the air was pregnant with the cry of poriborton.

Poriborton in Assamese stands for change. People were tired of the Congress' "lethargy" as it failed to bring development in the state. So, they hoped that the new government under the leadership of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal would bring systematic changes in administration.

After two consecutive monsoons since 2016, all dreams of poriborton have been washed away by the rains. Like this time, last monsoon also saw floods across the state, killing more than a hundred people and destroying properties worth crores.

On Tuesday, after capital city Guwahati was submerged under water due to incessant rains, the poriborton slogan of the BJP sold by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself during the election campaigns proved hollow.

Along with flooding of streets and several prominent residential areas, three persons, including a child died due to rains. While the boy and a man died due to electrocution, the body of another person was recovered from the Bahini river on Wednesday.

According to latest reports, 13,000 people have been affected in four districts across the state due to floods over the last couple of days. The four districts are Kamrup Metro, Darrang, Lakhimpur and Hailakhandi, as per reports.

The entire Guwahati looked like an island, due to waterlogging. The BJP during its poll campaign in early 2016 promised to solve the waterlogging issue in the city by working on storm water drainage system and waste management.

The residents allege that like the old regime of the Congress, the BJP too is not serious to solve the waterlogging problem. Experts insisted that the government must treat waterlogging as an engineering problem to tackle it.

Moreover, the administration needs to immediately stop illegal and haphazard construction across the city to bring some resemblance for future course correction.

"The yearly havoc created by floods in Assam is one of state's major problems. The government needs to understand it, otherwise days are not far away when the entire state would be drowned in floods," said activist Arman Ali.

OneIndia