Assam, Nov 12: The naming of a water supply project after Pakistan in Dhemaji district Assam, inhabited by ethnic communities, has triggered a controversy forcing the state public health engineering department to remove ‘Pakistan’ from the nameplate.
The original name, Pak Sthan Suk — meaning a location that can be reached through a winding road — has become ‘Pakisthan Suk.’ With this name in circulation for years, with even official documents vetting the name, the Assam PHE department named the water project ‘Pakistan Suba (colony) Water Supply Scheme’.
Assam PHE minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass has assured us that he would resolve the issue and take prompt action.
Sub-divisional officer, Dhemaji (Sadar), Nandita Roy Gohain, who led an inspection team of officers from the district administration on Thursday, said, “The original name ‘Pak Sthan Suk’, over the years, somehow became ‘Pakistan Suk’ and ‘Pakistan’ was officially recorded in the documents of the PHE department.”
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“Ancestors of the present residents gave the name Pak Sthan Suk. It was an isolated land once due to the distant location, mostly inhabited by Ahom and Chutia community people. There are no Muslim villagers there,” Gohain said.
Activists of the Bir Lachit Sena erased the name Pakistan from the nameplate of the project on Wednesday. Dass had a word with Dhemaji MLA and education minister Ranoj Pegu and Jal Jeevan Mission, Assam, director, Akash Deep, considering the matter’s gravity.
Gohain later said the project has been renamed Burhakuri Dakhin Suk after revenue village Burhakuri under which the area falls. “The people residing here are from OBC. There are no minorities there,” she said. Government sources said PHE department records show that this name has been in use since 1992.
