ZYF meets Manipur Chief Secretary; Discusses issues relating to
Tamenglong-Khongshang Road and Non Relocation of District Secretariat
Imphal, July 1 (MExN): A team of Zeliangrong Youth Front (ZYF) led by its President, Titus Kamei, met with Manipur State Chief Secretary Nabakishore Singh and discussed issues relating to the Tamenglong-Khongshang road and non relocation of District Secretariat.
According to a press release from the ZYF, the restoration of the Tamenglong-Khongshang road was flagged off by the district ADM after necessary funds amounting to Rs.13 crores was sanctioned by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway in 2014 entrusting the task to National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) where Woodhills is executing agency.
“But the concern execution agency failed to begin the work till date by giving different reasons,” the ZYF revealed further ruing that the State Government failed “miserably” to commence the restoration work of the said road.
The State Government, for reasons best known to itself is trying to blame the people of the district by stating that the people of the district prefer BRO to execute work. This is an attempt to justify their misdeed with intention to mislead the public, the ZYF contended.
“It is the State Govt. that gave obstacles and hindrances to the overall development of the district by exhausting development fund with all works abandoned without fully completion and adopting delaying tactics for the last many years,” the ZYF maintained.
Deriding the Manipur Government, the Zeliangrong Youth Front stated that development funds sanctioned for Tamenglong district is actually a means to siphon off fund and not for execution of public works. This, it contended, is evident by the “incompletion and abandonment” of many works including district secretariat.
ZYF stated that it has been pressing the State Govt. to relocate the office of Deputy Commissioner and all district level offices to the district Secretariat which was already inaugurated on November 3, 2011 by P. Chidambaram, the then Union Home Minister, in the presence of State Chief Minister, Cabinet Ministers, MLAs and other top Government functionaries.
ZYF also mentioned that it had, in a meeting with the Government of Manipur on February 28, 2016, discussed the matter at the Chief Minister Secretariat with Manipur Chief Minister O. Ibobi Singh, and other Minister and MLAs, during which both parties agreed that the district secretariat shall function from the first week of May, 2016. “However till date the State Govt. failed to fulfill the assurance,” the youth front stated and pointed out that this indicated the evident “lack of commitment”.
Further stating that the State Government in order to justify the “abandonment and incompletion” of the district secretariat despite the fact of inauguration five years ago has “started giving excuse that the site selection of district secretariat is wrong”.
“Why not the State Govt. look for more appropriate and suitable site prior to commencement of work and before all the money are withdrawn if the site is wrong?” the ZYF questioned and disclosed that the site selection and foundation stone was laid in 2005 by Chief Minister Ibobi in the presence of Gaikhangam and other Ministers and MLAs.
Similarly, the Zeliangrong Youth Front stated that the restoration of Khongshang-Tamnglong road is yet to commence till date “with some excuse which is hard to believe although fund has been sanctioned by the MoRTH in 2014”.
In this regard, the front demanded the intervention of the Central Government into the matter in order to alleviate the hardships of the common people at the earliest.
