Wahong village reels under Govt apathy
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, July 04 2015 : Located around 130 Kms from Ukhrul district headquarters, Wahong village is reeling under extreme hardships as very limited Government development schemes reach this interior part of the State.

New Wahong and Old Wahong villages having around 180 households hit the headlines recently when an alert was sounded by the villagers after smoke and ashes were seen continuously emitting from a nearby area known as Shitru.

A media team who rushed to the village to collect news about the mysterious phenomenon had to brave a long bumpy ride and tough trekking to reach the village.

Two unconnected pillars represent a bridge at Wahong village

The village falls under Chingai AC of Ukhrul district and the media team could see Indo-Myanmar border pillar number 130 after trekking only around 10 km from there.

The border with neighbouring Nagaland is located at a distance of around 3 km from the village.

New Wahong village has around 130 households while Old Wahong has around 30 households and the distance between these two villages is around 5 km.

Needless to say, villagers rely on agriculture and forest products for their livelihood.

Villagers are yet to see the light of electricity in these two villages while hill streams located kilometres away from their houses inside deep jungles are the only source of drinking water.

At night, some well-to-do families light up their homes using solar lights.

During rainy season, the village is normally cut off from the rest of the world as no vehicle can pass Chalou river to reach neighbouring Kharasom village when the water level is high.

The only suspension hanging bridge constructed over the river serves to pedestrians only.

During this part of the season, villagers who need emergency medical care and expecting mothers usually face untold hardship and inconvenience.

It is said that many of them were left at the mercy of the Almighty during this part of the year as no medical facility had ever dared to reach the village till date.

One can imagine how people would reach Kharasom (30 km from Wahong) during rainy season as there is no proper road at all to connect these two villages.

Fed up with these extreme adversities, the villagers even tried to construct an RCC bridge on their own.

However, they could not go beyond erecting two pillars in the middle of Chalou river.

No vehicle except Shaktiman truck can reach Wahong from Kharasom.

Regarding education, villagers might be thankful to the Government up to some extent as they had atleast taken the pain to establish a school in the village although there is no Government teacher.

The school is being run by the villagers.