Imphal, November 19: The ceremonial function of hoisting the tri-colour flag of the country on the occasion of Independence Day on August 15 and again on the occasion of celebrating Republic Day on January 26 every year are the only semblance of existence of Government offices in deserted and worn out Chingai sub-division of Ukhrul district for the last 27 years.

The administration of the sub-division, then having just 44 villages began in 1969 after Chingai was inaugurated as one of the sub-divisions of Ukhrul district by the then Chief Minister late M Koireng.

However, to the utter dismay of the people of the sub-division, the SDO has not been discharging his duty from the office since 1980.Around that same period, officials of other Government Departments posted in the sub-division too have started abstaining from attending to their duties and today there are no Government officials except a handful of Grade IV employees in the entire sub-division.

These are some of the facts that came to light during a tour of the remote sub-division conducted by a joint team of representatives of various social organisations like Information Centre for Hill Areas, Manipur (ICHAM); Northern Raphei Students' Union; Raphei Katamnao Long and Tangkhul Mayar Ngala Long (Tangkhul Youth Council) and mediapersons from Imphal on November 17 and 18.The objective of the tour was to understand the problems being faced by the people of the area.

Ukhrul-Jessami Road, (National Highway 150) is the only lifeline of the people of the area connecting the sub-division with the rest of the world.

After lying in neglect for more than 30 years, repairing of the stretch of the National Highway from Awang Kasom (Ngahui) to Chingai at an estimated cost of Rs 90 lakhs under ACA scheme was started last year.

But the contractor, whom the villagers identified as one Thammi had done nothing to improve the condition of the road although he had allegedly withdrawn a sum of Rs 70 lakhs.

Consequently, with a funding of Rs 99 lakhs under the Centrally sponsored scheme of SPA, the black topping of the road has begun newly again.

But the manner of executing the work has not been to the satisfaction of the people.

With no attention being paid on maintenance of proper drainage system and failure of using roller during road construction work, there is nothing that the people can expect from the road work either.

Aggrieved villagers have questioned the rationale behind sanctioning of the fund for black topping even before expansion and proper shingling of the road and construction of the drains.

Earlier passenger buses used to ply on the route, but after Thammi took up the contract work of repairing the said road, no bus can be ever ply since 2005, the villagers said, while informing that apart from repairing the road for just a distance of 10 kms, the contractor left out rocky portions from road expansion work.

Besides, the road and communication problem, another difficulty the people of the sub-division have been facing is the failure of electric supply since 1992.Moreover, apart from a lone local nurse, there are no doctors and equipments in the Primary Health Centre which was inaugurated by Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh in 2003.Even as the office complexes of other Government departments like Veterinary, PWD, Agriculture, etc have been overgown with bushes and reeds, the godown of the FCS was found conveniently being used as resting place for stray cattles.

There were also only two constables, both locals, at the police station.

According to the chief of Chingai village Kaphungkam, of all the problems of lack of proper infrastructures in the headquarters of the sub-division, the present condition of the High School is the most deplorable.

To prevent the building of the school from falling apart, the villagers are using wooden planks to support it.

Out of the total requirement of 20 teachers in the school, there are only five of them.

So instead of sending their children to the said school, all those who can afford are sending their children to schools at Ukhrul or Imphal.

Most of the villagers do not know who is the SDO nor have received any PDS items, not to talk of having knowledge about the existence of Tribal Development Department for the welfare of the tribal people, the village chief lamented.

ICHAM president Nongthombam Rajendro who led the team to Chingai expressed serious concern over lack of necessary infrastructures for development in the sub-division and assured that his organisation would exert pressure on the authorities concerned for looking after the needs of the villagers with regard to road communication, electricity supply and education.

He also informed that similar tour in other interior parts of the State would be conducted in due course of time.

The villagers pointed out that there have been numerous past instances of misusing the fund sanctioned for developmental activities in Chingai sub-division.

More than Rs 1 crore had been released under PMGSY for development of the 30 km long road from Chingai to Tusom.

Although the fund had been withdrawn and the stipulated time for completion of the work is over, there has no been sign of any road development work beyond 4/5 kms, they said.

They also rued that construction of a suspension bridge over Chalou river along Chingai-Poi Road at an estimated cost of Rs 15 lakhs had not been executed properly.

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