Doomdooma: Flood prediction, disaster preparedness and alleged illegal coal, stone and sand mining in the hills of Nagaland came under scrutiny at a mock parliament organised at a school in Upper Assam’s Tinsukia district on Friday.
Students from Classes VIII to XII debated Assam’s recurring flood crisis.
With the nation preparing to celebrate its 80th Independence Day, the school auditorium was transformed into a miniature House of democracy, with assistant teacher Abhijit Khataniar presiding as Speaker.
The session centred on an adjournment motion moved by the Opposition on the issue, “Recent Floods in Upper Assam: A Failure of Disaster Preparedness and Early Warning Systems.”
Opposition members criticised the government, alleging that inadequate preparedness and ineffective early warning mechanisms had aggravated the impact of the recent floods in four districts of Upper Assam.
The Opposition also raised concerns over alleged illegal coal, stone and sand mining in the hills of Nagaland and questioned the government’s failure to curb such activities.
It further alleged that despite promises made before the elections to address Assam’s long-standing flood problem, adequate concrete measures had not been taken to find a lasting solution.
The Treasury Bench strongly rebutted the allegations, arguing that natural calamities such as floods and earthquakes cannot be predicted with absolute accuracy.
The members pointed out that no technology has yet been developed anywhere in the world that can provide 100 per cent advance warning of such disasters.
Following the debate, the Speaker put the adjournment motion to a voice vote, after which the motion was rejected.
Concluding the session, Khataniar spoke about the larger lesson of the democratic exercise. “The essence of democracy is not that everyone must agree; it is that everyone must have the right to be heard,” he said.
He congratulated the participating students for expressing their views with confidence, responsibility and respect for democratic values.
He also reminded them that the strength of democracy lies not merely in raising questions but equally in seeking responsible solutions to those questions.
More than 100 people have died so far due to floods in Upper Assam over the past month.