Submits representation to DC Mokokchung demanding immediate intervention
Morung Express News
Mokokchung | January 25
Officials of the Ao Kaketshir Mungdang (AKM) – the students’ body of the Ao community – today undertook an on the spot inspection of the different ongoing ‘improvement’ works of circular roads in different parts of Mokokchung town.
The officials were visibly dissatisfied over what they termed as ‘poor workmanship’ and ‘lipstick blacktopping’ on certain stretches of road, which compelled them to write a memorandum to the Mokokchung Deputy Commissioner for his immediate intervention.
The AKM officials led by its president L Jemti Longchar and his colleagues (and also accompanied by some media persons), were shocked at the damages on the recently repaired roads along the Kichutip to Salangtem ward. They noted that only a thin layer of bitumen, sand and tar has been laid on the road and which was already peeling off, getting cracked or simply being sluiced away by moving vehicles.
“Once the monsoon arrives, this semblance of a blacktopped road will be washed away with the first rains,” said one of the officials.
They also expressed dismay that the stretch of road from Artang to Civil Hospital was dotted with potholes. The road from Police Point to IMDH (Civil Hospital) is still yet to be repaired.
After the on-spot inspection, the AKM submitted a representation to the Deputy Commissioner, Mokokchung requesting his immediate intervention into the ‘poor workmanship’ of the ongoing works which is being executed under the Urban Development Department, Mokokchung.
The AKM said it has received a lot of complaints from different quarters over the ‘poor workmanship’ of the ongoing repairing works. It univocally stated that they were ‘appalled haphazard work done by the contractors and the negligence of the Urban Development Department’.
The representation appended by the AKM president L Jemti Longchar and general secretary Bendangkumba Aier, put on record the repairing work at Circular road from Tongdentsuyong via Power House as “Lipstick blacktopping.” It observed the road was in a deteriorating stage with the blacktopping peeling off, due to poor workmanship and demanded that the particular stretch of road be repaired immediately.
The AKM observed the other circular roads- from Sewak Junction via Civil Hospital to Police Point were equally pathetic. It also expressed dissatisfaction over the circular road from Police Point to Tongdentsuyong via Estate Office.
It also lamented that the stretch from Police Point to IMDH (civil hospital) which – the AKM asserted – is one of the most important roads in the town where patients seeking medical attention have to travel was in a pathetic condition. The AKM expressed alarm that the road improvement projects may not be properly implemented since there are only a few months of the dry season left. It therefore urged the DC to impress upon the UDD to rectify their “haphazard works at the earliest.”
Further, the AKM urged the DC take an on-spot inspection, and direct the concerned contractor (s) or the UDD to carry out repair work again on roads which are not up to prescribed standards.
It also declared that the students’ body will be closely monitoring project. If works are not up to the specification stipulated in the work order, the AKM would be left with no option but to initiate own course of action for the interest of the general public, the representation cautioned.
