Paorei yearns for solution to education, water woes
Source: Chronicle News Service / Ranjit Angom
Imphal, December 19 2022:
Located at a distance of around 28 kilometres to the north from Ukhrul town, Paorei village is longing for attention of the government for bringing solution to their issues including the lone government high school, lack of market linkage for their vegetable produces and scarcity of water.
Paocham Government High School in Paorei village was established in 1959 and has been catering to the educational needs of the students of the nearby villages, especially the adjoining villages of Paorei, Phungcham and Varan-galai.
The school has eight teachers and 107 students enrolled.
Paorei village chairman Robust Pheirei and secretary Zikia Khaleng told The People's Chronicle that the local residents are looking after the old school, whose building is worn out today and needs repairing.
All they could do is to patch up the broken walls with some planks or roofing sheets but that will not be a solution as it will not be strong enough to hold together the creaking structure.
They are hoping that the government will construct a new school building in place of the old one, they said.
They further said that Paorei is one of the oldest villages of Ukhrul district with its settlement dating back to 1946 .
There are 436 households in the village with a population of around 2540 people.
The peace loving villagers mainly depend on agriculture and vegetable farming.
Though they could produce plenty of products, they have not been able to sell their products due to lack of market linkage and bad road connectivity.
The road leading to the village, which was renovated a few years back under PMGSY, is in bad shape, they pointed out, while drawing attention of the government for renovating the road before it becomes worse.
One of the most difficult situations that the villagers are facing is water scarcity for over two decades.
There is a good water source at Tare Vara at some distance from the village and laying pipeline would resolve the issue of water scarcity, they opined.
The village leaders appealed to the government to extend the water supply scheme being developed in Chingai sub-division to the three villages.
They, however, informed that they are enjoying good power supply in the village.
One characteristic of the village is its vast area of wild Cosmos flower and the villagers want to promote the flower as a potential tourist attraction with some help from the government.
They had organised Cosmos festival with the aim to promote domestic tourism and it helped in conserving biodiversity and wildlife.
Developing tourist guesthouses in the area could enhance the tourism potential, they said.