Agartala: Tripura Government on Friday criticised the central government for its alleged apathy in repairing a stretch of the Assam-Agartala National Highway in Karimganj district of Assam, which has disrupted the supply of essentials and fuel in the state.
“Despite repeated requests to the central government from all corners of the administration for repair of the NH-8, the central government did not pay any attention to our demands. The state is facing unprecedented crisis for fuel and essential commodities for the last four months,” state PWD Minister Badal Chowdhury told a press conference.
He said, “The state Governor Tathagata Roy, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and PWD minister himself repeatedly requested central ministers and sent SOS several times, but the central government did not pay any heed to our problems”.
A stretch of about 20 km on the National Highway became muddy and unfit for traffic flow due to heavy rain and waterlogging on the roads.
The PWD minister said he spoke to his Assam counterpart Parimal Shukla Baidya for immediate repair of the highway as the central government had given responsibility to them for its repair, but nothing was done. He said Union minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari had been requested several times to take immediate action, but again no action was taken.
Chowdhury, to a question, said if the central government wanted to deploy personnel from the Army’s engineering wing, they were free to do it, as the repair of the highway required work on war footing.
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress supporters led by Youth leader Sushanta Chowdhury tried to block the entry of the ministers in the civil secretariat here on the plea that they failed to supply fuel and essential commodities to the people of the state.
However, due to intervention of the police no untoward situation took place. The Trinamool leader told reporters that they tried to block the entry of the ministers into the secretariat, because when the people of the state were facing severe crisis of fuel, the ministers had no right to move in vehicles.
A total of 25 Trinmool Congress picketers were arrested, a police official said. Other people also tried to block roads and in one place burnt a tyre, but police managed to douse the flames. State Food Minister Bhhanu Lal Saha said “the odd-even vehicle registration number system like that of Delhi was introduced here to distribute petrol and diesel to all vehicles including two-wheelers since Wednesday last and a rationing of fuel was imposed to control the situation.”(PTI)
