UKHRUL, MARCH 10: Decrying the inordinate delay in construction of PMGSY road for the last three years, irate villagers from Zingsho Mapithel areas of Ukhrul district have on Friday formed a Joint Action Committee to press for their demands for early completion of the road from Lambui to Hongbei Junction before the onset of monsoon.
Dozens of representatives from village authorities, youth organisations and leaders drawn from nine villages of the area today converged at Lungphu village and held a day-long public discussion on the matter, following which the JAC was formed to mount pressure on the government for early completion of the road.
Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of the public meeting, convenor of the JAC Sword Mahung said that the sanction order for the central road project under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana covering about 58 km from Lambui to Hongbei Junction, was awarded six different contractors at the cost of Rs. 3/4 crores each under PMGSY Package No. MNO 979 of Phase lX (RT) back in 2014.
He continued that as stipulated by the sanction order, the date of commencement of the construction work was November 13, 2014 and its completion date was May 12, 2016. "However, till date the contractors have not even completed the singling part of the road, leave aside blacktopping the same," he rued.
"The villagers have patiently waited for a long time for the agencies to complete the construction," he related, adding that: "since the work has been dragging on for the last three/four years, we have now come to the stage of constituting the committee comprising of youth and elders of the area to bring the contractors to task for the undue delay in the construction works."
Alleging that this is a clear case of negligence by the contractors and the authorities concerned, he urged the government to look into the matter at once to end the hardships faced by the inhabitants of the area.
"Despite the Centre pumping in huge amount of money for constructing roads, hapless villagers of the area are left in despair and continue to face the problems of poor road conditions, because of this neglect by the contractors and the concerned department," he lamented.
According to Chairman Zingsho Mapithel Longphang AS Paothing, while some contractors have left the work in initial stage, others have never started the work till date.
Meanwhile, inhabitants of the area have also expressed dissatisfaction over the alleged lack of concern by the local MLA Leishiyo Keishing, even as the villagers are facing a worse fate in the absence of any motorable roadways.
The aggrieved villagers conveyed that they have elected Mr. Keishing as their MLA with much faith and confidence, but now their representative whom they relied on to look into their problems, has now turned a blind eye to the sufferings of the people.
Interestingly, soon after the villagers started notifying for the public meeting to discuss about the neglected road since the past few days, certain contractor has resumed the work by deploying some workforce on the ground along the stretch of Lungphu village, the villagers said.
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