Assam Yuba Parishad presses for repair of vital road link, Silchar

Special Correspondent

Silchar: The network of roads in and around Cachar, both in rural and urban areas, is turning into links with which are neither motorable nor suitable for pedestrians. The road link in question is the busiest Amjur-Sonai-Kabuganj passage under Sonai legislative assembly.

In a representation submitted to the Deputy Commissioner of Cachar on Monday, Nazir Hussain Laskar, president, Assam Yuba Parishad, constituency committee of Sonai, Cachar, said despite repeated protest demonstrations and holding of public meetings against the dilapidated condition of the road in question, no concrete measures have till date been initiated.

The resentment and anger among the residents of the vast areas are mounting which if not addressed to might erupt into wider agitation, leading to blockade of the busiest among all the busy thoroughfares.

Nazir Hussain Laskar reminded that in course of a long drawn agitation by the local people, the contractor concerned gave a written assurance in a joint meeting to repair the road by March 2018. This assurance, he pointed out, was given in presence of the executive engineer and other staff of his department. But, assurances are only for public consumption just to keep the agitated people in good humour. Neither the executive engineer nor the contractor is now accessible nor are they seen in public. The reasons are best known to them. Even the people’s representative of the area has no proper answer.

The general impression is that the dream of a better governance and better delivery of things by the present dispensation at Dispur has fizzled out with the passage of time. Assam Yuba Parishad feels such situation on the ground is creating the condition for the rerun of non BJP government. Even, AGP for political expediency and the present hot situation against the backdrop of NRC update is maintaining a cosmetic relationship with the saffron party. It is of course, as Nazir Hussain Laskar added to say, is a political story and might carry a discordant note. But, the fact remains one cannot escape from calling a spade a spade.

The monsoon and the continuous rains are playing havoc with the already damaged road and the worst sufferers are the everyday commuters and vehicular traffic. Various modes of transport unable to sustain the deplorable road with innumerable craters and holes have become susceptible to damages of vital mechanical parts. A ride or travel through the road is so tiresome and painful, besides time killing, that the people of the vast areas have no alternative than to go for indefinite closure of the road. Not to speak of old and infirm, sick and ailing, students who have to flock to their educational institutions and be back home are undergoing untold sufferings.

It is indescribable how patients are carried to primary or subsidiary health centres. To take them to Silchar Medical College and Hospital is like a nerve-wracking and bone-shuttering experience, pointed out Sufian Laskar, central organizing secretary. Against this backdrop, Assam Yuba Parishad strongly pleads with the Deputy Commissioner of Cachar to look into the matter with the seriousness it deserves. It is also his expectation that on this strength of the representation submitted to him, he would exert his good offices to see that the work on the repair of roads is taken up without further delay.