Construction of Charoi Padongba-Loiboi IVR road in uncertainty
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, October 11 2014 :
The construction of the 10-km Charoi Padongba-Loiboi IVR road in Saitu Constituency, Senapati district under Prime Minister Gram Sarak Yojana (PMGSY) now lies in uncertainty as the construction work has been stopped midway with MSRRDA which is entrusted with the construction work citing lack of fund for resuming the said work.
The clearance for construction of the road under PMGSY was already given by Ngamthang Haokip, MLA of the constituency who is also the IFCD Minister and Francis Ngajokpa, Minister of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj after conducting survey of the road in 2003 .
Since the concerned agency did not initiate the construction work, villagers had to start the construction work keeping in view of the importance of the road.
When villagers of Charoi Padongba led by its former chairman L Pammei and a team of media persons inspected the condition of the road on October 10, it was found lying in a deplorable condition with half of the road only accessible by jeep and thick undergrowth on the other half.
Panmei stated that road connecting with Loiboi Khul is a lifeline for people of his village.
A survey of the road was completed way back in 2003 for taking up construction under PMGSY.
Moreover, two ministers, Ngamthang Haokip and Francis Ngajokpa, had personally corresponded with the authorities concerned for commencing construction works.
However, the chief engineer of MSRRDA has responded to repeated intimation for starting construction with the reply that there is no fund to carry out the work, he stated adding that the agency has instead diverted its resources in the construction of another road leading to Pondyang from the bank of the Tupul river.