Nava Thakuria
The All Assam Engineers’ Association (AAEA) strongly demands for demarcation of the campus of Assam Engineering College (AEC) and a solid boundary wall to protect the premier institution of Northeast India in Guwahati’s Jalukbari locality.
The graduate engineer’s forum, while condoling the recent deaths of seven students of AEC in a late-night road accident, insisted that the regions’ first government engineering college should have a sealed residential campus so that the hostel boarders cannot come out after the specified evening hour.
A statement from the AAE said, “Lot of questions were raised when the fateful accident took place (killing seven and injuring six individuals including three students along with three others) on the security aspect of the college. Why the entrance gates to the college were not closed by the night hours was also raised by the guardians and common citizens. But in reality, the AEC campus is not isolated as it was a few decades back and it now supports a huge volume of residents who use the AEC gates round the clock.”
Recently a delegation of AAEA comprising its president Er Kailash Sarma, working president Er NJ Thakuria and secretary Er Inamul Hye (incidentally all of them studied in AEC three decades back) visited the campus and interacted with a group of boarders in Hostel-7 (which housed the seven victims).
The delegation also discussed with the authority about the unfortunate incident and other relevant issues. No doubt, the delegation witnessed a deteriorated campus with an increasing presence of public-private vehicles running on the AEC road.
“It was shocking to witness that large areas of AEC have been encroached. The entire college campus was earlier covered by the Gauhati University hills on the north and Deepor Beel on the south. Now virtually the southern part of AEC supports a large number of private houses (including multi-storied apartments). It’s surprising how the low-lying areas (specified as the green belt adjacent to the wetland) were allowed for construction purposes by the concerned authorities which created hazards to the college ambience,” said the AAEA statement.
It also added that state chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma should look into the matter and evict the encroachers from the AEC land.
Years back, the AEC authority had urged the State government for the boundary wall that would separate the private residents from the college campus. The construction was proposed to start with the point near to ASEB power office (adjacent to the National Highway) and the AEC guest house touching the LP school.
It would touch Tetelia road and backside of the principal office. Lastly the wall would cover PWD chock, Hostel-3 and Assam Police Radio Organisation office in the west. It was also proposed that the private land within the campus should be purchased/requisitioned for allotting it to the AEC authority.
“The college authority had already approached various offices of GMDA, GMC, DTE, Kamrup (metropolitan) district administration with others for taking the possible administrative, legal and technical measures to protect the AEC by constructing the boundary wall. We support the demand for enrichment of AEC, which was recently accredited by the National Board of Accreditation in five disciplines (Civil, Mech, Electrical, Chemical and Electronic & Telecommunications).
The accreditation has elevated the status of AEC to a global standard,” stated the forum. Finally, it asserted that the new RCC block of Hostel-7 (in place of the Assam type building), sanctioned in the year 2014-15, should be completed as early as possible for the benefit of students.
