Villagers take onus of repairing highway
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 08 2019:
With the condition of Imphal-Tamenglong highway growing from bad to worse, people of as many as 100 villages settled along the highway have repaired the Kang-pokpi-Tamei section of the same State highway to their best level.
70 Kms long Kangpokpi-Tamei section of the highway was constructed with around Rs 70 crore sanctioned by the NEC over a period of two/three years starting from 2014.But the same section is today highly dilapidated.
At the initiative of the Joint Monitoring and Development Committee (JMDC), transport services along Imphal-Tamenglong road or IT road was suspended today and people of as many as 100 villages repaired the Kangpokpi-Tamei section to their best level.
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Notably, JMDC is a common body of Liangmai Naga, Kuki and Gurkha communities settled along the highway.
Villagers filled potholes, dredged roadside drains and trimmed roadside bushes.
From Kangpokpi to Chawangkining, the condition of the highway is relatively better but the portion from Chawangkining to Thonglang Akutpa is abound with big and small potholes.
Showing what the villagers were doing at Thong-lang Atongba to repair the road, JMDC secretary W Karangambou said that MLAs, Ministers and other Government authorities were petitioned repeatedly to repair the road ahead of last year's rainy season.
But all of them maintained that the highway was under the care of NEC and the State Government could do nothing about it, he conveyed.
"Nonetheless, we appealed fervently to the Government authorities to explore some means to repair the road as it is the lifeline of around 100 villages.
Although they said yes this time, nothing has been done on ground", Karangambou said.
The road was being repaired by the villagers at the initiative of the JMDC to draw immediate attention of the authorities concerned, he said.
However, JMDC would be constrained to launch intense modes of agitation in association with tribal apex bodies and CSOs in case the highway is not repaired within the current month, he said.
Thonglang Atongba village Pastor M Liangpibou said that the highway has been lying in a highly pathetic condition since the past two years.
It would have been much better for all stake holders if the road was repaired before it had degraded too much, said the Pastor.
There have been many cases of road accidents on account of the highway's deplorable condition.
At many other instances, villagers had to pull out vehicles stuck on the highway.
One was able to reach Tamei from Kangpokpi in two hours when the road was better.
But the same journey now takes three to four hours.
Between Kangpokpi and Tamei, there are three MLAs and two of them are Ministers.
Given the highway's deplorable condition, their stature as people's representatives is highly questionable, said Pastor Liangpibou.