Inhabitants of Phalee and Teinem villages in western Tangkhul region has urged the state government to construct Makuikong road that connects LM sub-division with Ukhrul district headquarters, stating that the roadway is in a bad shape due to years of neglect.
Highlighting the woes of villagers in the region during a press conference held at UDWJA office in Ukhrul town Tuesday, chairmen of Phalee and Teinem village authorities A Sochipem and Yangsing Raleng said that it was disgraceful of the state government to overlook the lifeline of the region that connects LM block with the district headquarters by a distance of 19 km only.
They said that the villagers are facing untold hardships in the face of continued apathy of the government towards the pathetic roadway for years.
“We appeal to the authorities concerned to immediately look into the issue and initiate necessary steps to construct the important lifeline which has remain unmotorable during monsoon every year,” they pleaded.
Later, a spot inspection of the pathetic conditions of the road was jointly conducted by the village authorities of the two villages along with media persons.
During the inspection, the road was found in an extreme state of wretchedness. The villagers said that they stopped using the road during this monsoon due to dangerous state of the road, and the situation has remained unchanged for the last many years.
Sochipem and Yangsing
told media persons that the villagers have repeatedly approached the
authorities concerned to look into the issue to spare their plights but each time, their plea fell on deaf ears.
“So for the last many years, the villagers have been maintaining this
road. We have been repairing it by mobilising funds from different
sources since the government has failed to construct the road,” they rued.
“The villagers here are suffering because of government’s neglect and the worst is taking sick
people to the hospitals or transporting essential commodities in and out of the village,” they lamented.
According to the village leaders, the villagers have been doing
maximum repairs of the wretched road by pooling limited resources
after every monsoon for the last many years. “But once the next
monsoon arrives, the road gets damaged and is rendered unmotorable. And this has become something of a torturous cycle for poor villagers,” they said.
Sochipem and Yangsing said that it taked only 1 hour or less to get to Ukhrul town through Makuikong road but due to unmotorable
condiction of the road, the villagers are currently using a much
longer route via Tolloi village which takes them 2/3 hours to get to the district headquarters.
They said that the road was built by the locals of the two villages on their own back in the late 1980s. However, the government has failed to improve or construct the road to make it an all season roadway and the road has remained one of the most neglected roads in the district.