[Assam] Needed: Uniform Development

[Buljit Buragohain]

Needed: Uniform Development

I am reading quite a buzz about an engineering college that is
coming up in Dhemaji in Assam. There was also a letter from the parent
of a student stating that there were many teaching positions at Assam
Engineering College, Guwahati lying unfilled. I must say any
development in a developmental-deficient region of the country is all
good for the good of the people.
While the going is getting better, I must not suppress my envy for
the good fortune that has befallen Dhemaji. You see, I come from an
almost barren, some would say utterly neglected, region of Assam. What
is that barren region? Roughly, it encompasses an area bounded by
Abhayapuri, Chapar, Bilashipara, Gauripur, Dhubri, Golakganj, Halakura,
Chatrasal, Tamarhat, Boxirhat in the north bank of the Brahmaputra. The
region also includes Dudhnoi, Goalpara town, Jogighopa, Lakshipur,
North Salmara, Mankachar, Sukhchar and many other places in the south
bank of the great river. In recent years my wife and I had gone almost
annually to the many places I mentioned. It remains the same as or less
developed as I had seen 50 or 60 years ago when I was a college
student. The only thing changed for the better now is that you can
travel by bus and cars instead of bullock carts! 
There are many colleges, alright. The jute industry which provided
cash to farmers is gone now because of lack of water ponds for small
jute-growers and processors. So are gone the jute-bailers. Most of the
educated have left the region in search of better avenues for
employment or remain unemployed. How about establishing a medical
college and an engineering college at Gauripur as starters? Then will
come a university at Abhayapuri. Then Assam will not look so much like
a distant State which it is now. That imbalance is also creating a lot
of resentment. 
Kalyan Dutta-Choudhury,
Berkeley, California.
(Letters to the Editor ,The Sentinel,10.12.2009)




      The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/