OUR CORRESPONDENT
ITANAGAR: People in three villages in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Siang district have threatened to boycott the general and assembly elections due next year if the government fails to construct a vital bridge, the village’s lifeline. The villages, Rime Moko, Pidi Rime, and Todi Rime, have 33 households, including a total population of nearly 400 people and a total voter population of around 300, as per the 2011 census. The people of the villages are using a log bridge constructed on a self-help basis. For the villagers, venturing out of their villages during the monsoon season is a risky affair. During the monsoon, they suffer untold miseries as the villages remain cut off from other parts of the state due to a lack of bridges over the raging Hijum River, a tributary of the Pisam River.
On July 29, the residents of Rime Moko, Pidi Rime, and Tode Rime villages discussed the pathetic road connectivity and the need for a bridge over the Hijum River. Reckoning that the backwardness of the area is due to a lack of proper connectivity, which has adversely affected the people of the area economically and socially, they resolved to urge the state government to construct an all-weather road from Pidi Rime to Hijum Rime. They also resolved to seek improvement and realignment of the existing PMGSY road from Tabasora to Rime Moku and improvement and realignment of the full stage of the NLCPR (Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources) road from Nyorak to Rime, via Pidi Rime. Rime Moko village head gaon burah Gambin Rime and his counterpart of Pidi Rime village, Pokjo Rime, said that the people of the three villages have discussed the issues thoroughly, especially the matter of a bridge over the Hijum river, and have resolved to place the grievances before the state government for redress. “If the state government fails to fulfil our demands, we will resort to democratic agitation, and if necessary, we will go to the extent of boycotting the upcoming parliamentary and state elections,” they said.
The duo claimed that they have requested the local MLA twice: once after his election in 2014 and also during his second term in the 2019 elections. “Our last hope is to request Lok Sabha member and Earth Sciences Minister Kiren Rijiju,” they added. A local of Rime Moko village, Pokpe Rime, said that in the absence of a proper bridge, the people have to carry patients on their backs and cross a 15-20-metre-long log bridge over the river to the Nikte primary health centre and the Aalo general hospital. “When the river is in spate, parents don’t send their wards to school, fearing that the children might slip off the log bridge and drown or suffer injury,” he said. Pokpe, who is also the secretary of Rime Welfare Society, added that it pains him a lot to see development in other parts of the state, but the BJP government has not done anything for development here. The villages come under the Aalo West assembly constituency and the Arunachal West Parliamentary constituency.
Union Earth Science Minister Kiren Rijiju represents the parliamentary constituency, while state Industries Minister Tumke Bagra represents the assembly constituency. “We are suffering due to neglect by the elected representatives,” Pokpe said, and he speculated that the sparse population might be one of the reasons that the area is completely ignored by the government. “We are helpless. If the bridge is washed away, the people of the villages will not be able to see each other. Even schoolchildren will have to sit idle at home,” said Gram Panchayat chairperson Domin Rime. Domin added that the villagers have submitted numerous representations to the local MLA, but their requests have fallen on deaf ears. “The existing PMGSY road from Tabasora to Rime Moko, constructed in 2001–2002, is now not at all motorable, and the road has not been repaired or maintained,” he said.
The minister, when contacted, said that “no developmental work could be taken up due to COVID-19 as most of the funds were used up for procurement of vaccines, equipment, and medicines by the state government and no funds were made available for developmental works. The two-time BJP legislator said that the state government has also not provided funds under the Special Infrastructure Development Fund (SIDF) and added that he would try to include the bridge under a scheme. Bagra, however, added that, with less than a year to go until the elections, it may not be included. He declined to comment on the call for boycotting the general and state elections.
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