Plain belt erupts against Mukul

From Our Correspondent

Tura, July 31: Over 500 youth from plain belt area of West Garo Hills today erupted in anger and demanded immediate repair of road from Agia (Assam) to Garobadha.

The rallyists gathered at Bhaitbari playground, about 55 km from Tura and took out a peaceful procession in the town.

The rallyists expressed their concern speaking to media on the poor road connective and blamed the chief minister Mukul Sangma for being partial to his home constituency Ampati.

“The road in South West Garo Hills has improved a lot. The road connecting to even small villages with 50 households are also better than our main road, which is the lifeline for nearly 2 lakh people”, said Mostafa Kabir, secretary of Anti-Corruption League (ACL), a pressure group from Bhaitbari-Rajabala area.

He castigated Mukul for working in the interest of his home constituency and neglecting different parts of Garo hills and particularly plain belt area, which is dominated by the minorities.

“As chief minister it should be his responsibility to work for the holistic development of Meghalaya but the condition of our road is a testimony of his government’s step motherly attitude towards minorities”, Kabir added.

The agitating organisation said that the chief minister claims that the plain belt area will reap benefit of the new connectivity from Srirampur in Bengal via Dhubri and Phulbari (NH-127 B), where India’s longest 14 km bridge will be built over Brahmaputra River, but the need of the hour is immediate connectivity for the people.

“The proposed new route and bridge from Dhubri to Phulbari may take years but we want urgent solution”, said Nur Islam of All Meghalaya Minority Students Union (AMMSU)

In 2013, the 50 km stretch of road from Singimari to Agia via Rajabala, Bhaitbari, Phulbari and Tikrikilla was repaired, however, it got damaged within five months.

Today’s rally has asked the government to blacklist old contractors, who are to be blamed for the sorry state of road condition in the plain belt.

Recently, Tura Lok Sabha MP Conrad Sangma has submitted a plea to union minister Nitin Gadkari to declared the stretch from Agia to Garobadha as National Highway and speed up road improvement.