Guwahati, April 3: By all accounts, the organisers of Namami Brahmaputra, touted to be the biggest river festival of the country, goofed up on the weather front.
This is evident from the observation made by the Regional Meteorological Centre, based at Borjhar near LGBI airport here, this evening, following inclement weather across the state.
"We normally give weather forecast five days ahead," a senior RMC official told The Telegraph, an observation latched on to by those who have been questioning the state government's decision to hold the open-air festival during this time of the year when rain is more or less a certainty.
The authorities, however, did not seem to feel the necessity to make arrangements to devise ways to prevent the rain from creating the chaos it has so far.
Pandals, for example, have not been constructed even over the main venues of the festival in Guwahati, forcing Baba Ramdev's appearance this evening to be pushed indoors to the ITA auditorium nearby. A second attempt to shift Ramdev's event back to the main venue turned out to be a tryst with incessant rain, slush and an eventual washout.
"Five days are enough to make necessary changes for such a grand festival, more so when so much time and money (Rs 14 crore) have been invested....We were lucky that the opening ceremony was not a washout. Given the publicity, people will still turn up to see what is happening but that will not help the overall cause. A little bit of precaution could have saved the event," said Jitu Tapan Bora, a resident of Beltola.
The event is being held simultaneously in 21 districts and all venues have been affected. Most of the scheduled events were disrupted or shifted to other venues. Yesterday, panellists of one of the discussions did not turn up.
"The festival is a very good initiative but a little more planning on the weather front was needed. They could have put up a couple of pandals to tackle such an eventuality," a completely drenched Uday Baruah of North Guwahati said, while struggling to make his way out of the slushy venue.
All programmes of the festival in Dibrugarh today were cancelled in view of the rising water level of the Brahmaputra. The closing ceremony and other programmes on the final day tomorrow will be held as per schedule, Dibrugarh deputy commissioner Laya Madduri said.
Senior cabinet minister and key member of the organising committee Chandra Mohan Patowary had told The Telgraph on April 1, the second day of the festival, that the weather issue had been factored in while deciding the dates of the festival. "We had discussions with the Met people. There was no forecast of rain. There was forecast of rain during the inauguration but the showers didn't come. Such things can't be helped," he said.
Sources in the organising committee had also said all aspects of the festival, which will be an annual event, would be reviewed.
The Met department has predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall at "isolated places over Assam and Meghalaya" tomorrow, the last day of the festival. The washout for Namami just grows worse.
