SHILLONG: A PIL has been filed before the Gauhati High Court against the Union of India, State of Assam and the State of Meghalaya on the need to complete the construction of the Rymbai- Jalalpur road sanctioned by the North Eastern Council.
Following the PIL, the Gauhati High Court issued notices to all the respondents including Meghalaya Government represented by the Chief Secretary and the Commissioner and Secretary, PWD, Meghalaya.
Pursuant to the direction of the Gauhati High Court dated March 3, 2014 the petitioners have decided to pursue the case with the NEC and officials of the Meghalaya Government.
In the meantime, the NEC has engaged its representative for the case but, the Meghalaya Government is yet to engage a Government advocate.
In a statement issued here on Sunday, Bishwajyoti Purkayastha, the petitioner in the case, said that Rymbai-Jalalpur road has been sanctioned by the NEC under its 10th & 11th five year plans. This road will shorten the connectivity between Guwahati and Barak Valley through Meghalaya. Moreover, the road will work as an alternative to NH 44 from Rymbai upto Gumrah via Jalalpur.
Further, the road will avoid existing hilly, dilapidated and zig zag road and will bypass the landslide and accident prone Sonapur area.
The affidavits filed by the PWD, Assam and NEC clearly testifies the fact that about 2.8 km of the road in the Assam-Meghalaya border near Natanpur could not be completed by the PWD, NEC, Division, Assam due to the inter-state boundary dispute.
Informing that Union Ministry of Finance has already sanctioned around Rs 163 crore for the construction of the road, the petitioner feared that the entire project could be in jeopardy due to non-completion of the 2.8 km stretch of the proposed road.
The petitioner also mentioned that the settlement of the dispute by filing of affidavit by the Meghalaya Government was crucial to the execution of the project.