TVSF submits memorandum to Chief Secretary
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 13 2020: The Tamenglong Village (Inriangluang) Students' Federation (TVSF) has written to the Chief Secretary demanding that the starting point (0) of the Tamenglong-Haflong Highway should be at Old Tamenglong adhering to the 'Gupta Alignment' as agreed in the beginning of the project.

In a memorandum submitted to the Chief Secretary, the student body claimed that Tamenglong village along with others had given the NOC to the project with the understanding that the 'Gupta Alignment' would be followed making Old Tamenglong the starting point.

However, disregarding the villages' consent and understanding reached between them and the authorities concerned, a new proposed alignment of the highway has emerged which runs through the villages, said the TVSF.

Preparing for the old highway alignment, the villagers had lost many cultivated land and forest areas.

Changing the alignment again would burden the villagers again.

They are bound to lose vast agricultural land and farms.

As such, the old alignment should be followed, the student body said.

The body further claimed that the district administration in its defence for the new alignment had stated that the starting point and the ending point of a National Highway have to be connected to a National Highway.

There are no such regulations in relation to construction of National Highway; it is a flimsy excuse to confuse the people.

The implementing agency should come out with a clarification regarding this issue, it said.

The Tamenglong-Haflong Highway, if constructed along the old alignment (Gupta Alignment) with the starting point at Old Tamenglong will benefit more than 22 villages in relation to trade, commerce and tourism.

The road will also serve as a route to the 'mystical Zeilad Lake and the Majestic Ahu Klunduang (Barak waterfall)', two popular tourist spots which are not fully developed to their full potential due to lack of proper connectivity, the student body said.

It claimed that the new alignment as proposed by that had been rejected back in 1990s by the Border Road Task Force (BRTF) and work was abandoned, as the gradient was not suitable for the construction of a highway.

"Though we are not against Government developmental project, people of Tamenglong will not allow even an inch of our land to be touched by the project, if the construction of the highway proceeds along the new proposed alignment.

The NOC was issued with the understanding that the starting point of the highway will be at Old Tamenglong, not somewhere or anywhere in Tamenglong," said the body.

The Tamenglong Village (Inriangluang) Students' Federation (TVSF), along with the public of Tamenglong will take up democratic agitation if the appeal is not heard, it said.

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