Wapang Imchen Dimapur
Most laymen like me would not believe that we have spent a sum of Rs.12925 Lakhs on road maintenance from 2014-2017. But with the amount of money spent for the purpose, there would certainly be a good road which I did not see or traveled yet. As a Dimapurian, I did see roads being repaired but are short lived and with the quantum of budgeted share allocated for Dimapur, the roads should have been much better had the money been used judiciously with proper supervision of the concerned engineers or authority. In our childhood days, we walked to school on foot and our shoes get stuck on the thick layer of bitumen (Tar) during hot days. We felt the road too wide as there were fewer cars and rickshaws. But these days, the road develops cracks the very next week it gets completed and are short lived and the most ironic is that whenever a road is repaired or BLACK TOPPED, the Telecom departments digs a pit the very next day which not only damages the thinly layered surface and turn the road muddy but also endangers the motorists and pedestrians as well.
In the meantime, with rapid urbanization, the natural streams which were wide and deep have been narrowed and encroached and are made shallow by garbage and silt. Most of the well constructed roadside drains of the seventies and eighties are no more and those left are filled with garbage as we are yet to distinguish between DUSTBIN and DRAINAGE. Though a layman, I know the theory that ‘there cannot be a good road where there is no drainage’ and here at Dimapur we do not have proper drainage which are either been blocked or encroached for construction. With a slight drizzle our roads gets flooded with stench. We saw and felt with the first deluge during the last few days ago. The drainages at the heart of the city- Deluxe Point, City Tower, Friends Hall, Eros lane, Churches colony, Burma camp- Railway gate, NST/ East Police Station area, Notun bosti, Mid-Land etc. are some of the worst areas.
Dimapur being one of the fastest growing cities in the North- East, the gateway and commercial city of Nagaland, it is our image and we as citizens should try to bear the moral responsibility to beautify it and should have to learn the civic senses and should be civilized in our every action and it is high time the authority should act upon. We need quality roads and drainages and the quality should not be compromised on false claim of deduction as His share/Her share, Their share etc on the sanctioned amount for that purpose of development which are in some case left unfinished/ incomplete which nobody cares. Let us care for this city in whichever way we can.
