By Toko Young || TEZU, DEC 27: The denizens of Tafragam village in Tezu, Lohit district, has questioned the department of Public Work Development (PWD), Sub-division, Tezu, over trimming of actual road length 21 km to 13 km for construction under the Chief Minister Comprehensive State Road Development Plan (CMCSRDP), which was implemented for ‘improvement of district headquarter township roads at Tezu’.
Speaking to reporter here on Wednesday, Chairman Bapu Welfare Society (BWS-NGO), Pazingso Tayang informed that a flagship programme was announced for construction (improvement) of Tezu township roads under the CMCSRDP, which was implemented in the year 2019-20 with the completion date set by 2024. As per its Detailed Project Report (DPR) guidelines, the initial estimated road length is 21 km (approx), which has been minimized to 13 km in present date, including construction of some meters of drainage system along the aforementioned road.
He claimed that the deduction has been done deliberately by the officers of the concern department, involved in this project, while highlighting that as per DPR, a length of 9km road from BRTF to VKV Tafragam has been shortened to 4.9 km, to which the people of the affected area has raised concerns about the same, but the officers have been giving excuses instead of a valid explanation.
As per documents obtained through RTI, it is also learnt that amount of Rs. 12 crores (approx) has been allocated for the construction of 21 km road length in Tezu township, but in reality there is no such implementation of work in ground, leading to misuse of the funds, he informed
He said, “Similar to the Hollywood movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, there are ‘Pirates of Arunachal’, and these are the educated and intellectual bureaucrats, who are to be held responsible for dominating over the developmental schemes meant for the marginalized people of the society”.
“We have been knocking many doors of all concern authorities till date, seeking explanations/clarifications for the deliberate reduction of road length, but failed in the process”, he added, while informing that the various pressure groups of the affected areas had meetings with the Deputy Commissioner (DC), IAS Shashvat Saurabh, and 44-Tezu, assembly constituency, MLA Karikho Kri, regarding this matter
Further, Tayang informed that following the meeting with the DC in the month of August last, the officer had constituted a ‘finding committee’ for ground inspection, while stating ‘to our utter sadness, it was found that the committee’s report is no less than a cover-up to the actual cause, as the report consisted only of the bad drainage conditions and not of the road length deduction’.
Aslo, the group had met the local MLA Karikho Kri, to which he had directed the officer in-charge to conduct a meeting with the people in order to clarify any doubts. But, the officer had not conducted any such meeting till date, instead issued a statement, wherein stating ‘the deduction has been done due to insufficient fund’, Tayang added
Again on 26 December, a group consisting gaon buras, NGO, PRI and SHGs members of Tafragam, Hayuliang and Tezu in general, had a meeting with the DC, and the latter has sought a time-frame till 30 December 2023, to resume the process to solve the matter
“Enough is enough, we will not tolerate any kinds of discrimination anymore. We will not let on-going work resume, if the concern authorities fail to provide valid reasons for trimming of road length”, he said while informing that an ultimatum has been served to the DC and the Executive Engineer (EE), Sub-Division, Tezu, for justifications on trimming of road length from 21 km to 13 km under the CMCSRDP scheme.
We appeal with folded hands to the MLA Kri and the higher authorities to address our grievances and resolve the same at the earliest, as we do not want to miss out the opportunity to avail the benefit of good road in our villages, BWS Chairman added
