DIBRUGARH, March 5— Under the Samaritan scheme of the Assam Police called Project Prahari, at least one remote village in the district is set to see a happier future. The project is a brainchild of the Assam DGP, Hare Krishna Deka. Ordinarily used to round up ruffians and maintain law and order, cops of the Khowang police station in the Dibrugarh district are taking up an altogether different role as society peers and thereby helping villagers to help themselves.
Project Prahari was launched at the nondescript Bokahulla village on March 17 last year. During the past twelve months, the hundred odd families of the remote village — it is located about 3 kms away from the Khowang police station — have developed their area into a role model, with each villager participating in the development process. Today, the agricultural fields of Bokahulla boast of multi-cropping, the lone lower primary school has undergone a drastic facelift, and the severely potholed PWD road passing through the village now is a lot better, after locals volunteered labour.
Says Bipula Nanda Choudhury, deputy superintendent of police: “All we did was to motivate the villagers to do certain things by themselves, without waiting for the official departments.” Project Prahari, he says, is all about empowering the people. “We in the police just liaise with government departments, so that existing development schemes reaches the people through an express window.” The villagers of Bokahulla area today empowered and motivated. They do not think twice about rendering community service voluntarily. However, this change of mindset took some effort on the part of the police. DSP Choudhury gives full marks for this to the officer in-charge of the Khowang police station, sub inspector Surjya Kanta Neog. He was the key person to help form a community management group in the village. This group today is taking up several other development works for sustained improvement of the area.
As a part of this, the villagers have been induced to multi-cropping on their farmlands. Cultivation of Ahu and Bodo paddy has just been initiated on an experimental basis on a 50-bigha plot of the village. DSP Choudhury said the Bokahulla experiment has been successful due to unstinted cooperation from various government agencies, like the DRDA, irrigation and other departments.
Currently, the villagers are actively considering poultry farming, piggery and fishery rearing as viable avenues. For the police, Project Prahari has helped to get out of the monotony of chasing thieves, smugglers and insurgents. And the rewards, though nothing material, include the satisfaction of helping a society stand up on its own steam. For the Bokahulla village, which is populated by poor people and a socially backward community — it is yet to boast of a graduate — the change is indeed most welcome.