Tripura Legislative Assembly witnessed an intense discussion on Thursday on a Calling Attention Notice of MLA Sushanta Deb on taking steps to prevent erosion on both sides of the Bijoy Nod in Bishalgarh. The Calling Attention Notice opened gates for other MLAs – both the treasury bench and opposition MLAs. A total of 17 MLAs stood up and talked about the urgency of strengthening river embankments across the State to prevent the recurrence of floods.
The MLAs, during their discussion on the Notice, suggested several initiatives to minimize the probability of flooding and reduce the extent of damage.
In his Calling Attention Notice, Sushanta Deb highlighted the plight of people living along the Bijoy Nod in Bishalgarh during the recent deadly flood. For the safety of locals, he demanded placing boulders both sides of the river to prevent water from flooding nearby habitation.
| Also Read : Tripura Assembly Sees Protest Walkout by Opposition Amid Motion Celebrating BJP’s Win in LS |
In reply to Deb’s Calling Attention Notice, Minister in-charge of the Public Works (WR) Sushanta Chowdhury said Bijoy Nod originates from Barmura and travels 55 kms covering different areas of Tripura. In Bishalgarh, the length of the river is 20 km. Chowdhury informed the house that the department placed boulders at different places along the river in Bishalgarh and Rs 3 crore 76 lakh were spent for this purpose.
The Minister also said a plan was taken up to place boulders in another 2.5 km stretch of the river in Bishalgarh.
MLAs of both ruling and opposition parties raised concern over the present state of existing embankments and sluice gates along with suggesting erecting new embankments. Periodical repairing the existing embankments after recent floods was also stressed by the MLAs.
Apart from these, MLAs opined in favour of conducting dredging in all rivers including Kantakhal in Agartala. MLA Abhishek Debroy informed the House that dredging activities started in the Gomati River. However, he said, the progress of work is slow. Demand for increasing Budget allocation for DWS was also floated to ensure river dredging.
(Tripura, Tripura News)
