Guwahati: Guwahati reels from yet another preventable death, raising the agonizing question: how many more lives must be lost before the callous apathy of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) and the Assam government finally ends?
The death of 50-year-old Anju Rongpi, a tribal woman from Khetri Borbitoli village of Sonapur area, crushed by a collapsing, decade-old brick guard wall near the Bahini River in Beltola bazaar in Guwahati on Thursday, is a stark testament to their criminal neglect.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
Local residents paint a damning picture of the wall’s long-standing disrepair, a ticking time bomb that the GMC shamefully ignored.
Assam Pradesh Mahila Congress president Mira Barthakur, present at the scene, rightly held the government accountable for this tragic loss.
Her scathing indictment – that the authorities are quick to collect revenue from the market but utterly fail to provide basic safety and facilities like toilets – resonates with the growing anger of Guwahati’s citizens.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
Why, she rightly questioned, was this foreseeable tragedy allowed to occur? Had the responsible departments shown even a modicum of diligence, Anju Rongpi would still be alive.
This is not an isolated incident; it is a chilling pattern of negligence that has claimed at least five other innocent lives in Guwahati in recent years. Each death underscores the profound failure of the GMC and the Assam government to prioritize the safety and well-being of their citizens.
The grim roll call of preventable deaths includes:
June 2023: Priya Kumari, an eleventh-grade student, was horrifically killed after falling off a scooter that skidded on an obstruction left carelessly by the Guwahati Jal Board at Ganeshguri in Guwahati. An open pit dug for laying water pipelines, left unbarricaded, became a death trap.
May 2023: Sumitra Rabha, an elderly tribal woman, perished in Kharghuli when a negligently maintained pipeline burst, the force of the water sweeping her and others away. Locals rightly pointed the finger at the “apathy” of JICA contractors and the Assam government.
June 2023: Naren Choudhury, a 43-year-old man, lost his life in Hatigaon after falling into an open drain. The railing meant to protect pedestrians had been removed months prior for construction, and the area was left dangerously unsecured.
September 2023: Mantu Deka, a 32-year-old youth, fell into an unmarked and unlit pit dug by JICA for a water supply project in Hengerabari. Basic safety measures were glaringly absent.
July 2023: Sourav Kumar Das, 28, died after falling into another carelessly left open pit near Gate Hospital in Mathgharia.
July 2024: Eight-year-old Abhinash Sarkar was swept away by raging drain water in Jyotinagar during heavy rain. His body was found three days later. This incident highlights the perilous state of drainage infrastructure, especially during the monsoon.
April 2025: Romila Das narrowly escaped death at Chandmari in Guwahati after being electrocuted by an exposed high-voltage electricity cable near an under-construction flyover, another example of blatant disregard for public safety during infrastructure projects.
These repeated tragedies are not mere accidents; they are the direct consequences of the GMC and the Assam government’s inexcusable negligence and utter lack of accountability.
Their failure to maintain basic infrastructure, properly barricade construction sites, and ensure public safety has turned Guwahati into a perilous environment for its residents.
The question is no longer whether the GMC and the Assam government are aware of the dangers; it is whether they possess the will and the basic human decency to act before more innocent lives are needlessly extinguished.
The citizens of Guwahati deserve more than empty promises and callous indifference. They demand immediate action, accountability for these deaths, and a commitment to ensuring that their city is no longer a death trap. The time for slumber is long past; the time for decisive action is now.