Assam under chemical and biological attack from Kharupetia, Dalgaon: Himanta

SIVASAGAR: Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today said Assam is under chemical and biological weapon attack from a “section of people who live in Kharupetia and Dalgaon” in Darrang district of the state.

Exhorting the Assamese youth to take up agriculture and horticulture under Redesined Swami Vivekananda Youth Empowerment Yojana (Re-Svayem), the senior minister of the Sarbananda Sonowal all but admitted that the food and civil supplies department of government, headed by Phani Bhusan Choudhury as minister, has been failing to ensure safety of food in the state.

“The number of kidney, liver and heart ailments have increased manifold in Assam over the past 20 years ... We Assamese people are under chemical and biological weapon from a section of people who live in Kharupetia and Dalgaon. It is a fact that people of Jorhat, Sivasagar and other upper Assam districts are dependent on vegetables from Kharupetia and Dalgaon. But, are you aware the farmers in those places use dangerous chemicals for quick production and preservation of vegetables. Those substances take its toll on the health of human beings.

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“Similarly, those people use chemicals and some very filthy things as food in fish cultivation in those areas. The feeds they use are something which cannot be spoken about. To be precise, our Assamese people are becoming sick by consuming all those food. Therefore, it is high time the youth of Assam take up horticulture and agriculture to save the Assamese community from these chemical and biological attacks.

He was apparently referring to minority community people who dominate the referred areas. Suspected migrant minority community farmers grow a sizeable quantity of vegetables in the sandbars of the Brahmaputra in Darrang and Barpeta districts.

Addressing the Re-Svayem scheme launch in the Upper Assam district, Sarma said the first installment of Rs 30,000 each would be released to the beneficiaries in a day or two and the remaining Rs 20,000 each would be released after submission of utilisation certificate of the first installments.