The Gauhati High Court on Wednesday admitted a PIL filed by senior Congress leader Debabrata Saikia against the state government, alleging negligence led to the devastating floods in several Upper Assam districts in July.
Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar heard the petitioner's counsel KN Chowdhury and directed all listed parties to file their replies by November 3.
The floods in Sivasagar, Charaideo, Jorhat and Golaghat districts claimed 105 lives, displaced lakhs of people and destroyed the livelihoods of thousands of families, according to the petition.
Saikia alleged that the floods were not a natural calamity but a "man-made disaster".
"I had been warning the government and the authorities since 2018. I had earlier approached the Gauhati High Court twice, and it had issued clear directions in 2019 and again in 2022 to stop illegal mining in the Dikhow riverbed and to constitute a Task Force Battalion," Saikia said.
"The government simply ignored those orders. Even the official report of the Water Resources Department dated January 12, 2022, clearly predicted that continued illegal excavation would change the river's course and cause devastation, which has now come true in the most tragic manner," he said.
The petitioner said he had filed two PILs in 2018 and 2019 before the high court, highlighting alleged rampant and unscientific mining of sand and stone from the Dikhow riverbed, particularly in the Assam-Nagaland border areas.
The HC had directed the state to stop illegal mining and form a dedicated Mines and Minerals Task Force Battalion, he said.
In 2022, the court again reiterated its directions, but the BJP-led state government did nothing, he alleged.
"The government protected the mining mafia instead of protecting the people of Upper Assam. Night-time mining continued with impunity. I submitted repeated representations to the Deputy Commissioner, the Superintendent of Police, the Chief Secretary and even to the Chief Justice but no action was taken," Saikia said.
Saikia also alleged that illegal open-cast coal mining in Nagaland's Mon, Mokokchung and Wokha districts and the sudden release of water from the Doyang Hydro Electric Project without proper coordination further aggravated the situation.
The natural protective features of the river, including sand and gravel bars that once helped moderate floodwaters, were systematically destroyed by years of illegal mining, he alleged.
The petition sought an immediate and permanent halt to illegal riverbed mining in the Dikhow and its tributaries and full implementation of the HC's 2019 and 2022 orders, including the creation of the Task Force Battalion.
It also sought the constitution of a high-powered monitoring committee headed by a retired judge, scientific assessment of the role of illegal mining and dam releases in the floods; full restorative compensation to the victims beyond the token ex gratia; registration of FIRs against those responsible for illegal mining and official negligence; and a real-time coordinated protocol for upstream dam releases to protect downstream communities in Assam.
Demanding accountability, Saikia said the state government must answer why it ignored judicial orders for eight years.
After hearing the matter, the Chief Justice verbally acknowledged that the petitioner had raised the concerns earlier and observed that the government must explain why floods could not be prevented, as they should not become an annual cause of misery for the people of Assam.
(With inputs from PTI)
