Thousands of people continue to subsist in Hamren town, in Karbi Anglong, and they are irritated about that. Even without minimum human requirements, they took to the street under the banner of ‘Hamren Development Joint Action Committee’ yesterday demanding drinking water, roads, communication, power, medical facilities, cooking gas, stocks of petroleum and more.
The headquarter town of Hamren subdivision in the west of Karbi Anglong autonomous district has remained in an archaic condition since independence, although prerequisites for the development of the mountainous region of the district was made much earlier.
After the creation of a separate subdivision by the government, the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council created a separate administrative block of the KAAC at Hamren town to accelerate development of the region. Crores of rupees under hundreds of government schemes have been spent on almost every possible justification but at ground zero until today, women mainly track thousands of feet uphill to bring home a few liters of malaria-infested drinking water.
Most areas of Hamren are not accessible by motor, even in good weather conditions, due to massive destruction of forests, causing soil erosion which hampers terrace cultivation. In spite of the fact that this area produces hundreds of megawatts of hydro power, this is a power-starved area of Assam.
In the last forty years, neither road nor surface transportation has developed to a worthy shape. With favorable weather condition for developing horticulture and live stock, practically nothing has come up except unplanned rubber cultivation on private initiative.
Leaders of the newly constituted Hamren Development Joint Action Committee submitted a memorandum to the Chief Executive Member of Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council, demanding swift action to fulfill their demands with concern for Hamren town’s improvement from its ramshackle state.
