Skip to content Skip to navigation

NGO demands a freedom fighters’ park in Guwahati

Citizens’ First , an NGO has demanded the land vacated by shifting of Guwahati Central Jail from Fancy Bazaar area of the city to be converted into a freedom fighters’ park with green coverage and installation of Martyrs’ column.


In a memorandum submitted to the Assam Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi recently, the NGO President Jagannath Chakraborty, Working President Ajoy Dutta, Ex-MLA and General Secretary Jagannath Das have urged an important issue relating to utilization and preservation of 64 Bighas of land vacated by shifting of Central jail from the city to outside.


The memorandum pointed out that the Fancy Bazaar and surrounding areas in the midst of the city have become more congested and crowded due to allowing construction of multistoried and high-rise buildings in its nook and corner. Roads of the area are also not sufficiently wide for safe and smooth movement of the citizens. There is no open space to take breadth. It has come to the notice of the organization that the land of the Central Jail, Guwahati, is going to be handed over the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority. Therefore the organization has thought it proper to bring this suggestion.


During the Independence movement of the country many freedom fighters were jailed in this Central Jail. Even the leaders of the first Refinery movement were also put in this jail for months together. Nobody can deny the sacrifice of those great leaders of the state. The NGO has felt that there is utmost need to preserve the memory of such great ‘Sons of the soil’. Therefore, it has suggested that the entire land of the Central Jail should be utilized as Freedom Fighters Park, with a big ‘Martyrs’ Column’ in the memory of martyrs of freedom struggle. Entire available land should be made green with fruits and flower bearing trees. The administrative building and boundary walls of the Central Jail should be preserved as ‘heritage site’. The name has also been suggested for the park as ‘Gandhi Maidan’.


It is a fact that all urban centers large or small require open spaces with abundant green cover to act as lungs, such areas help in reducing air pollution and make cities and towns more live able. Guwahati city with its unimpeded and largely haphazard growth is well on its way to becoming a more problematic city. Today open space in the city has become scare. At present agents of the land brokers, builders, middlemen, land mafias, are creating more problems with the available land in the city and the surroundings. There is need of strong state action against such elements, which are making the life of the common people most miserable, the NGO’s memorandum has added.


It has further mentioned that in case of natural disaster like earthquake, only available open space can give relief to the victims of such calamities. Government agencies also cannot deny the need of such open space in thickly populated city like Guwahati. Therefore the construction should not be allowed in the jail land. No permission should be given to any business house to open their shops or other establishments on the jail land. The encroached jail land should be made free from the clutches of the encroachers. The area outside the Central Jail may be utilized as parking space.


The Citizens’ First, has appealed to the Chief Minister to take immediate measures on the issue in the better interest of all sections of the society considering the ground realities of the situation.

Add new comment

Random Stories

Act East Policy centric conference in Shillong

28 Nov 2014 - 1:47pm | Rajiv Roy
The increasingly bigger role of the “Third Space” in every economic sphere will be richly explored in a 2-day conference titled “India’s North Eastern States and Eastern Neighbors:  Engaging for...

Consultation on environment and natural resources

1 Aug 2014 - 10:56pm | Syed Miraz Ahmed
Come September 14. Region’s top environmentalists and social scientists will rub shoulders in Guwahati to deliberate on piloting north east initiatives for the protection of environment & natural...

Ajmal campaigns for Subba

4 Apr 2014 - 3:25pm | AT News
AIUDF president Badaruddin Ajmal on Friday campaigned for Mani Kumar Subba following the ailment of the Tezpur independent candidate.Ajmal left for Tezpur by a helicopter where he held two huge...

Growing prospect of purple tea

20 Dec 2014 - 6:45pm | Mowsam Hazarika
A scientist from Tocklai Tea Research Institute (TTRI) in Jorhat has fetched no less ray of hope in the field of tea industry. He claimed to have found that the Kenyan purple tea, in fact, was...

Other Contents by Author

The Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi had expressed his views on the importance of 'healthy work culture' in the Harijan newspaper of 15th October,1938, emphasizing on hard work by the people of the country for attaining the goal of freedom. He dared to declare that 'declaring his birthday as a holiday should be treated as a cognizable offence'. This was a clear indication that the 'Great Soul' was confident of the might of his people, which later on succeeded in bringing freedom to the country. His experiments on Swadeshi movement brought good results. But it seems that the present situation has completely changed the whole thing and Mahatma’s dreams are shattered.Unfortunately, with...
The most respected and appreciated growth of the print media in Assam and particularly in Guwahati, for more than a decade seems to have taken a destructive path giving birth to a trend of malice among the communities they belong. It is now being used for personal grudge among the so called high profile people in the society.Since most of the media houses are controlled by major business houses, it has been noticed that they have themselves become news for last few months through their own acts and publication. Recently, it has been noticed that a few vernacular news papers defying all the ethics of journalism, have started mudslinging on their rivals for quite some time. Knowing it very...
Since the year 1989, Guwahati, the gateway to the north eastern India, has seen a mushroom growth in the Fourth Estate with entry of a number of newspapers and periodicals in various languages. Earlier, a few English and Assamese newspapers were published in Guwahati.  For getting the major and detailed news, the people had to wait till evening for newspapers from Delhi and Kolkata. No doubt the haphazard growth in the print media gave an opportunity to a large number of unemployed educated youths to join this challenging profession of prestige. With the information technology witnessing development at fast pace, the media houses failed to get the competent and trained workforce to...
India’s Lok Sabha polls in 2014, has brought a significant change in political scenario of the country after a decade’s rule of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by the century old Indian National Congress (INC). Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has come to power after ten years’ of struggle under the leadership of Narendra Modi, former chief minister of Gujarat. Although the BJP has got absolute majority in the polls, it has kept its flock together giving all the pre-poll alliance members their due share in the administration. The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has assured the countrymen of fair deal in the interest of all sections of the...
Problem-torn state of Assam for several years is now passing through a critical situation on which the Congress Party-led state government seems to have turned deaf ears and eyes-shut, despite hectic efforts of local people, NGOs and media covering the news from each and every corner of the state. The party in power for last thirteen years is divided among several factions contesting to gain maximum benefit out of the prevailing situation. The entire state is running under serious violence related to burning houses of inmates, murder, theft, communal hatred, abduction, indecent behavior against womenfolk and aged persons, but the administration is standstill. Criminals are active and have...
Ignoring their leaders directive Reang refugees from various Tripura camps are moving to their homeland in Mizoram in disguise. For about fifteen years of hardship in various refugee camps of Tripura, the evacuated people from their homes seem to have lost confidence in their leaders, who did not agree to return to their homeland despite several proposals for their safe return to their state. A recent media report says that so far 631 people belonging to 124 families have returned to their homes under disguise. However, according to Tripura government sources only 178 members of 27 families have gone so far. Thousands of Reangs were driven out of their homes due to conflicts with Mizo...
Failures of Congress Party in the state of Assam during recently concluded Lok Sabha polls has shattered the dreams of state chief minister, Tarun Gogoi, who had promised before the Congress high command to win more than half of the total seats for his party. The state has 14 parliamentary seats, out of which Congress could get 3 (three) seats only. The ‘courageous’ chief minister did not lose heart even at this defeat. The defeat led the Congress party in turmoil and some legislators of the party revolted against the leader of the House and demanded change in the leadership. The chief minister refused to bow down on the demands of those who desired the appointment of a new leader to lead...
India claims to be the largest democratic country in the world. In a country where majority of people do not get proper education about their status other than to vote for a political party or an individual on the basis of their ‘vague assurances’ to look into their welfare being in power only does not carry any meaning. India’s constitution provided specific conditions to educate the people within shortest time after independence, so that they could be in position to think about right or wrong policies of the government and raise their voice against the ‘evil designs’ of their destiny makers. The constitution has been amended hundred times, but the people in general could not be benefitted...
Will power has an important role in human life and those who have stamina to fight all odds, set an example for others to follow for a successful life. Even disability can be defeated if a person has determination to lead a peaceful life. We find a number of cases in the world when people lose heart on their failures in life. At the same time there are certain exceptions, who despite many odds in their life make it worth living by their strong will power. Here is an example of the life of a person who came out from a small village of Siyani Belchhi in the district of Jamui in Bihar. Born on January 2,1952, Rakesh Pathak became a handicap suffering from paralysis in his right leg at his...
The election process for the 16th Lok Sabha in India is going on full swing and by the middle of May 2014, the  complete picture of winning candidates would come out. The reign of the country for the next five years would go in the hands of mostly new faces. As there is a ‘good crop’ of leaders spreading throughout the 29 states and seven Union territories having a number of political parties spread throughout the country facing different administrative, natural and environmental problems, the election results are not likely to go for a single party rule. Speculations are on the air that post poll polarization of political forces may take place just after the final poll results are...