SHILLONG: Disgruntled residents of Huroi village in East Jaintia Hills district and the village dorbar executive committee have decided to boycott next year’s Assembly elections with a “No road, No vote” slogan, unless their demands were met by the state government.
“The people of Huroi village feel neglected and betrayed by the MLA, MDC, MP and also the government. We are being used just for the purpose of election and the MLA, MDC and MP disappear after the election, leaving us in the bane of underdevelopment.” Poly Pohlong, the secretary of Huroi village, said in a press statement issued here.
Confronted with various developmental deficiencies, the village located on the Bangladesh border, is grappling with the dilapidated Sonapur-Borkhat Road.
Ridiculing the state government over the road’s poor condition, Pohlong said, “The government should conduct the election during the rainy season. Then only they might understand our problem.”
Not just a bad road, the residents are also peeved at the unavailability of a primary health centre nearby, which poses a problem for patients, as at present, the nearest PHC is located at Umkiang, which is 60km from Huroi.
Pohlong said the village authority and local youths have time and again met the East Jaintia Hills deputy commissioner, the PWD(roads) official and the chief secretary to press for repair of the road and to sanction a primary health centre for the village.
“However, even after many meetings, and 70 years of Independence, the government of Meghalaya and our local representatives have betrayed us,” he said.
Asserting that they were fed up with the government’s apathy, Pohlong said, “Therefore, our village, which has more than 800 voters, will not participate in next year’s Assembly election to protest against the attitude of the government towards us.”
The residents say they would withdraw the “no-vote threat” only when the
The Sonapur-Borkhat road is repaired, the Rymbai-Borkhat-Jalalpur road project (pending with NEC) gets approval before the year-end and the Huroi sub-centre gets upgraded to a PHC.
“We want to participate in the election. But if the government does not care for development in our village, we have no option but to take this step. We hope the government will wake up now,” Pohlong said.
He alleged that despite directives by the Centre and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to address our grievances, the state government has not acted and was making false promises instead.
The Public Works Department had proposed for construction of the Rymbai-Borkhat-Jalalpur road with an estimate of Rs 94crore to the NEC in 2011.
The residents claim that the state government did not take any steps to make this project take off, and till date, the NEC has not given its approval because the government has not come up with the requisite documents.
Pohlong further alleged that despite a road repair proposal (estimated at Rs. 64 crore) from the PWD to NEC, Khliehriat in 2016, the state government remained indifferent.
