Relief at Rohmaria after scheme sanction

GUWAHATI: At a time when the monsoons are at its peak and the Brahmaputra is wrecking havoc in this flood-ravaged state, the sanction of a whooping Rs 350 crores for anti-erosion measures in a little-known upper Assam area have come as a big relief for local residents there.
Erosion has assumed menacing proportions at Rohmaria, spread over 100 sq-km along the Brahmaputra and 20 km away from the district headquarter township of Dibrugarh.The area has nineteen villages and twelve tea estates.
"Milt to moderate erosion has been common since the last fifteen years. But it turned acute since 1997, when the average depth of erosion became more than four hundred metres. A government sericulture farm, a road, a tea garden, fourteen villages and 250 houses were eroded because of erosion", Dibrugarh Deputy Commissioner, Neeraj Verma, said over telephone.
A recent survey by the Indian Air Force, whose own stations at Chabua and Mohanbari were also reeling under the erosion threat together with the Army cantonment at Dinjan, also revealed that the situation was becoming critical by the day.
Verma pointed out: "Under such circumstances, the embankment and drainage department here had submitted a Rs 406 crores project for anti-erosion measures including the construction of spars. I have been told that the centre has sanctioned Rs 350 crores under the non-lapsable pool of central funds for this project to be carried out over four years."
Infuriated locals at oil-rich Rohmara, believed to have a total potential of producing up to hundred kilolitres of oil per day, had earlier even vented their anger at oil major Oil India Limited, refusing to allow exploration and production activities unless the erosion problem was solved.
With the daily loss - including royalty, cess, sale tax and sale income from oil - amounting to a whooping Rs 4.61 lakhs, eyebrows had been raised as to why the otherwise cash-starved state government was not taking the initiative in anti-erosion measures despite the over looming threat perception to all concerned.
With the project expected to start from November, locals are reportedly no longer averse to OIL restarting its activities and a little bit of initiative from the state government will once again make oil exploration and production possible in Raomoria.
"This project comes at a very right time and it has been welcomed widely. Nevertheless, even prior to this, we had already started with our own pilot project for preventing erosion", Verma observed.