Imphal, May 06 2009: In the absence of proper road communication to link Molcham village with other parts of the state, villagers of Molcham in the Indo-Myanmar border area of Chandel district have been obliged to resort to neighbouring Myanmar markets that too connected with an old and vulnerable suspension bridge.

The dependence on cross-cultural market through a string of worn out bridge has made the Indian villagers to think that they belong to neigbouring Myanmar! .

The villagers have to depend on the suspension bridge that was built by the British in pre-independence period to acquire their daily needs at the nearest Myanmar market, Bokan.

The fate of the villagers has hanged on this thin, worn out, overpass and thus the only lifeline of Molcham villagers.

Interestingly, the only means of road communication that links Molcham village and Imphal is to walk through Moreh via Tamu and then to Imphal.

The existing road through Zero Miles and then to the AR post at Goken has not been passable since long time back.

As such they have to rely heavily on the Myanmar products as well as to use the roads of the Myanmar in traveling around.

To add the woes of the villagers, the Myanmarese Army have frequently threatened the villagers not use the road.

The villagers have also cited frequent cases of imposing heavy tax by the Myanmar Army, according to Lunkhongam Haokip, the village chairman of Molcham.

The lifeline of the villagers, a susceptible suspension bridge over the Tuito River which demarcates the Indo-Myanmar border, is so vulnerable that the villagers have to patch up time to time in their own in the absence of assistances from any quarter.

No government agency has so far enquired the needs of the villagers, they complain.

The use of Burmese products in their daily life has also infused a sense of belongingness to Myanmar apart from the geographical proximity and negligence from the Indian side.

"We feel a sense of despair on the thought that we belong to Manipur," the village chairman Lunkhongam Haokip pours out.

No sanction has been provided to the village under NREGS after the completion of 86 days of work in last year, he said.

Barring the lone Assam Rifles post at that altitude, there are no other visible signs that signify the area belongs to India.

The villagers were also deeply suspicious of the various developmental schemes for the village being amassed by some vested individuals.

Regrettably, caught in a fix, the villagers have never dared to pinch the slightest hope on the Manipur and India Governments to save them from their quandaries.

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