Longrangty Longchar
Tuensang | July 29
There are the curves, the steep cliffs and the potholes, some even qualified to be called ponds, on the National Highway 155 to Tuensang; and not surprisingly, the Eastern Naga Students’ Federation (ENSF) today strongly lamented the pitiable condition of the National Highway 155 and even said that the ministers and officials should travel on the road to know the plight of the people who travel on the highway.
Interacting with some visiting mediapersons at its office in Tuensang, the new ENSF executive members, who took office today after their election last July 23, said that the federation, last year, had submitted a memorandum to the Nagaland PWD while it took over the highway from the BRO. The ENSF, in the memorandum, demanded that the NPWD award the contract work to ‘the contractors from the area’, to employ the labourers only from the area and to explore the availability of the natural resources like wood and stones while making the road. The ENSF has also been demanding that the workmanship of the PWD should be acceptable, one ENSF official said today. However, the ENSF officials alleged that the state PWD has not implemented it so far.
The officials even threatened that it would not extend its cooperation to the department if the demand of the ENSF is not implemented with regard to the National Highway 155. “National Highway 155 can’t be called a highway,” said the ENSF vice president, Likhumse Sangtam. “This is just lipstick service; that’s what we observed.”
“Unless the department agrees with our policy (the memorandum submitted earlier) then we won’t be extending our cooperation to the department,” the ENSF vice-president added.
Significantly, the new ENSF executive members who assumed office today, disclosed that the Federation would prioritise the implementation of the ‘25 percent reservation’ issue, development activities in the area and also other issues.
“Since we are a pressure group we would be checking everything,” the ENSF president, Hawang Wangsha, said today. Wangsha, whose tenure as the ENSF president lasts till 2012, asserted that the trust of the student community on the federation would not be let down by the ENSF.
Promising that there would be some changes in the area within the next three years, the new ENSF president assured that the Federation would act like a watchdog and see to the implementation of the various state and central schemes like the NREGA. The Federation would also be seeing into the social sector, developmental and educational fields, the ENSF executives disclosed.
