Guwahati: Raijor Dal president and Sivasagar MLA Akhil Gogoi staged an eight-hour hunger strike on Saturday in front of the Sivasagar district commissioner’s office, demanding higher compensation for flood victims and a CBI probe into the recent deluge.The protest began at 8 am and was backed by party functionaries and workers. Speaking to reporters, Gogoi said, “Our foremost demand is that the govt should pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the flood-affected people. People have lost their complete houses and belongings. The state government has paid Rs 15,000 to some people. That is not enough.”Gogoi said a disaster of this scale in another state would have been declared a “national disaster” by Centre. He accused CM Himanta Biswa Sarma of failing to secure sufficient Central assistance, and claimed this had left the state with limited funds for relief.He also claimed that nearly 60% of roads and bridges in Sivasagar and nearby constituencies were damaged, and demanded Rs 100-crore packages for each of the worst-hit areas.Gogoi sought a CBI inquiry into the circumstances behind the floods that hit the region on July 19. “The CM first told us it was a cloudburst. But the IMD data showed it wasn’t. Illegal mining activities and buffer dams created upstream of the Dikhow river led to the devastation following heavy rainfall there in Nagaland,” he claimed.
