Works Minister seeks public cooperation
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, May 06 2022: Saying that public cooperation is a must to bring development in any field, Works Minister Govindas Konthoujam has asserted that road infrastructure cannot be developed fully without cooperation from the people.

Speaking to media persons at his Secretariat South Block office this afternoon, Govindas said that road infrastructure are indispensable in any human civilization and they form the building blocks of economic development.

Following announcement of the BJP-led Government's action plan for 100 days, construction and maintenance works have started, he said.

Despite sincere efforts of the Government, it would be impossible to develop all the necessary road infrastructure to the desired level at one go as there are financial constraints, Govindas said.

There are many cases where road construction works cannot be executed comprehensively.

There are also cases where road construction works cannot make any tangible progress as well as break down/decay of completed works within a short period because public cooperation is not received to the desired level, the Works Minister said.

He said that water logging on Asian Highway-I near Singjamei police station and Andro Parking reflects lack of public cooperation.

It is not only about road infrastructure.

The Government alone cannot bring comprehensive development in any sector, he continued.

Earlier, there was a practice of de-clogging and desilting drains and canals after the paddy harvesting season but the same practice can be hardly seen these days, he remarked.

Many roads have been breaking down rather fast as road side drains are completely blocked, the Works Minister said.

Nonetheless, the Government has initiated due process to de-clog and re-align drains at the earliest so as to avoid water logging on important roads, he said.

Govindas said that task forces of the existing 800 casual workers of PWD including Road Mohorrir, Muster Roll workers and Work Charge workers would be constituted shortly.

To a query, the Works Minister admitted that there are signs of lack of coordination among different Government departments.

As the Chief Minister is also aware of this matter, permission has been granted to form a coordination committee of all engineering departments including Telecom Department, he said.

The total length of National Highways passing through Manipur is around 1700 Kms.

Out of these, NHIDCL is in charge of around 1400 Kms while PWD takes care of the remaining 300 Kms, Govindas said.

As many people are unaware of this fact, they blame the State PWD when any stretch of National Highways falls into bad shape, he continued.

He mentioned that the roads of Paona Keithel and Thangal Keithel have been listed in the Government's 100 days action plan.

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