Following ‘flood jihad’ barb, Assam CM says State govt will move NGT against Meghalaya varsity for Guwahati water logging

Assam CM accuses Meghalaya university of causing floods, vows to take legal action for environmental damage

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday (August 12, 2024) said his government would move the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against a private university of Meghalaya, which, he claimed, demolished hills on its campus leading to large-scale water logging in Guwahati.

He also asserted that former Congress Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who ruled the state between 2001 and 2016, had also identified the water from Jorabat area along the Assam-Meghalaya border for the “artificial flood” in Guwahati.

Mr. Sarma’s accusation was against University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM), founded by Mahbubul Hoque who is also its chancellor.

The varsity is located in 9th Mile area in Ri-Bhoi district of neighbouring Meghalaya, near Assam’s Jorabat which serves as an entry point to Guwahati.

“USTM is a danger to Assam. We will go the National Green Tribunal against it,” the chief minister said.

He claimed that USTM has cut the slope of a hill on its campus to build a medical college in such a matter that the water flows to the Assam side.

Mr. Sarma asked media persons and State Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah to accompany him to Jorabat when it rains next to see how the water flows down from there.