Skip to content Skip to navigation

Lampi: torn in between ‘development’ and loyalty

Stockpile of electric posts for Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Scheme have been for months at Upper Lampi
No doubt, it is one of the most beautiful places in the state of Assam, India. Lampi or Langpih—as the Khasi people calls it—is a hamlet cradled in the hilly terrains of Assam bordering Meghalaya,a neighbouring state. Surrounded by hills where the humming of cascading streams fills the silence, Lampi is yet to witness the boons and banes of a modern life. So pollution, thankfully, is absent. But also absent are the basic amenities like health services, schools, electricity, good cooking fuel, sanitation and nutrition that deprive its residents of the rights which are constitutionally guaranteed to them. 

With a population of about eleven thousand, mostly Nepalis and Khasis, Lampi falls under the Boko sub division of Kamrup district in Assam. Agriculture and live stock rearing continue to be the mainstay of its people. Jhum or shifting cultivation is still prevalent. However, in the recent years much of Lampi’s forests are gone.

The road condition from Boko to Lampi is beyond description and so there is no regular bus service. People hire pick-up vans when they travel from Lampi Bazar to Boko and vice versa. One has to stand all the twenty kilometers distance. The business center is the Lower Lampi Bazar, with hardly 10 shops around. A marbled inscription constantly reminds the residents the day when the state health and education minister inaugurated the programme of road construction. Arjun Sarma, a local youth from Boko said that a total amount of Rs 12 crore was allotted for the construction project. But five years down the line, it is still the old kuchha road.

Electric posts without cables stand as lonely sentinels by the roadside all the way from Boko to Lampi. From Lower Lampi to Upper Lampi, such posts are seen lying in stockpile. Electricity or no electricity, contractors meanwhile collected their cheques issued under the scheme--Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vadyutikaran Yojona (RGGVJ)--alleges Dipak Sarma, a youth leader. Same is the story with the rural water supply scheme.

The Lower Lampi Middle English School established in 1988 with 65 students awaits provincialization. Chandra Sarma, the headmaster said that he and his six assistant teachers are yet to get their salary. It is been two decades now that these six teachers are providing services without any salary. After passing out the VIIth standard, students have to move out of Lampi to Boko or other distant places for their admission in a high school.  Omprakash Shirish  is another teacher working in Brindaban Lower Primary School at Makaribari village in Lampi for 27 seven years without any government assistance.

The apathy shown by the Assam Government has meanwhile encouraged a section of local leaders to be more inclined towards the Meghalaya administration. This camaraderie grew in recent times so much so that Meghalaya started calling Lampi as a part of its own territory and asked the Khasi community of Lampi to cast their vote in the Meghalaya state election. This has been the reason for the turmoil in Lampi a few years back. Meanwhile, the bordering neighbor started grabbing land in Lampi .Vast stretches of forestland cleaned overnight and the neighboring administration started implementing schemes meant for Meghalaya in Assam’s Lampi to attract the Khasi community’s vote. The Meghalaya Government went a step further and started issuing land pattas to the people living along the border.  Now they are trying to woo these people with basic facilities like electricity and water.

It is to be seen in the near future, whether it is loyalty to the state or electricity and drinking water that wins over the residents of Lampi!

Author info

Chandan Kumar Duarah's picture

The writer is a former Robert Bosch Fellow, an environmentalist and Guwahati based journalist.

Add new comment

Assamese Translator

Assam Times seeks English to Assamese translators!
Join our volunteer team.
Email editor@assamtimes.org.

Random Stories

Bishnulal Upadhay remembered

4 Apr 2017 - 8:42am | Shajid Khan
"Politicians of country have resorted to self-centred politics there by amassing unaccounted wealth. The political corruption has deteiorated the sceneraio of politics . Though there exist polticians...

Refgees ready to leave camps: Gogoi

16 Feb 2013 - 10:19pm | AT News
The state government has set up 20 relief camps in Goalpara district for people affected in the violence. As many as 17,949 people have taken shelter in those camps. The ethnic RHJAC is demanding the...

Nazira MLA takes part at discussion with locals

1 Feb 2012 - 1:33pm | Anup Arandhara
Nazira MLA Debabrata Saikia took part at discussion on Tuesday held at Sukapha Panchayat, near the border area with Nagaland. In this programme Saikia discussed at length problems of the...

AGP demands CBI probe into rigging

27 Apr 2014 - 4:46pm | AT News
The Asom Gana Parishad alleged that a section of government employees were engaged in rigging at Bornijora booth in the Lok Sabha polls which is a fit case for CBI probe.Addressing a press conference...

Other Contents by Author

In a scathing condemnation, a coalition of animal protection organizations in India has slammed the recently enacted Captive Elephant (Transfer or Transport) Rules, 2024, as riddled with loopholes that endanger captive elephants. The joint statement, signed by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, the Centre for Research on Animal Rights (CRAR), Heritage Animal Task Force, Kaziranga Wildlife Society, and the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO), urges the Ministry of Forests, Environment, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to strengthen the rules immediately. These organizations, dedicated to safeguarding elephants in captivity, meticulously reviewed...
The recent tremor that rattled Tibet is to be blamed for the change of colour of the river Brahmaputra water if the Chinese experts are to be believed. Writes Chandan Kumar Duarah.  The change of colour in the waters of the Brahmaputra runs in to a hail speculations in Assam which have reached New Delhi to be in touch with Beijing. Many theories seem to have surfaced beneath the entire scheme of things. But there is no conclusion.  The recent tremor  in Tibet, may be the prime cause of muddy water flowing through the Brahmaputra. Yang Yong, a geologist and Yarlung Zangbo (known as in China) expert  revealed that muddy water might highly be caused by the recent...
Wetlands in Assam have been carrying out a great role minimising intensity of flood in Brahmaputra valley. Better conservation of wetlands in the state may be the most effective way to control flood and erosion problems. Because wetlands store a large amount of excess water during flood. Most of wetlands in the state have become shallow due to turbidity, silt and sediment deposition. As they are becoming shallow the capacity of flood water storage also decreasing. So if these wetlands can be dredged and make deeper these will have more capacity to store more amount of flood water. According to Dr. B P Duarah, a Geologist and professor and Department of Geology, Gauhati University, said...
Dengaon is a beautiful area consists green hills, plains and rivers in Brahmaputr a valley. More than 50 villages and most of its inhabitants are belong to Karbi tribe. This area in border of Nagoan and Karbi Anglong districts in Assam are highly and dangerously fluoride-affected in Brahmaputra valley. The presence of excess amount of fluoride was tested in the water from rivers, ponds, wells, tube-well and deep-wells. Villagers have been suffering from fluoride for centuries which was detected in last decade. There are no drinking water supply facilities in remote villages which are not easily accessible. Symptoms of excess fluoride induced disorders are prevalent some states of the...
While high transmission wires offer a resting place to thousands of the Amur falcons, pausing briefly in Northeast India on their journey to southern Africa, the wires have brought doom for one of the endangered avian species, the Blacked-necked crane in Northeast India. The cranes collide with the metal grid wire line as they land and take off within the Valley. The species is classified as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List because it has a single small population that is in decline owing to the loss and degradation of wetlands, and changing agricultural practices in both its breeding and wintering grounds.   The small population of the Black-necked Crane or the Tibetan Crane, now...
Dredging the Brahmaputra is not a sole solution to minimie the flood and erosion problem of Assam. Scientists and experts say that the sole plan to dredge the riverbed will not help to solve the problem. A K Mitra, the former Secretary of Water Resource Department of government of Assam, says that dredging Brahmaputra is just an idea proposed about. It is still in theoritical state which would be difficult to implement without a total plan. Flood in Assam needs multi measures to minimise it, Mitra said. China had success story of dredging Huawang Ho on account of its multi-measures, he recalled with his field experience in China. In Assam it cann't be succeess unlesss and until some...
People of Pasighat region in Arunachal Pradesh resists big dam building in Siang river, the upstream of the Brahmaputra (Yarlung Zangbo) in India. People of Siang districts in Arunachal Pradesh have been agitating against more dam building on Siang river, the main water flow of Brahmaputra (Yarlung Zangbo) from Tibet, China. In a recent meeting on 'Policy Dialogue for Governance of the Brahmaputra River' held in Itanagar, the capital city of Arunachal Pradesh the anti-dam leaders cleared their position while state government officials and some experts had emphasised dam building on Siang (Brahmaputara). But, the anti-dam movement leaders have not changed their stand. Both Union and state...
After the Pink-headed Duck and the King Vulture, the magnifient White-bellied Heron (WBH) in Assam is all set to go the Dodo way. The absence or disappearance of the White bellied Heron is a matter of grave concern for conservationists. The bird is on the edge of extinction or may have gone extinct in Assam since sighting of the bird becomes very rare. Ornithologists say, there may be a few White bellied herons left in Manas National Park along the Bhutan border, but not sure whether they are resident or flew in from the Bhutan side. A few years back, photograph of this rare bird with a noose around its neck in a village in lower Assam sent shock waves among bird lovers of the state. There...
Elephants on the Line (EOL), a programme to reduce man-animal conflict along Indo-Bhutan in Assam, is showing results. Casualities on both sides came down to 90 percent with measures by EOL with the help of community, local administration, forest department, All Bodo Stuedents Union, Adivasi Students Union, local NGOs and various tea gardens in Udalguri district, said Jayanta Kumar Das, coordinator of the programme.  Udalguri district reports the highest HEC- related human and elephant death rates for the Bhutan-Indian transboundary elephant population, as well as the highest recent HEC death rates in Assam and India as a whole. Media and local forest department reported death of 13...