SHILLONG: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly inspected Mawphlang-Balat road and Balat-Shella border road and interacted with the villagers on Tuesday.
The committee is headed by senior Congress legislator Charles Pyngrope.
Other members are Zenith Sangma, HM Shangpliang and Nujorki Sungoh
Speaking to media persons, Sangma said, “During the inspection, it was found that the road is in a very deplorable condition and repairing has to be done immediately otherwise, people are going to face a lot of difficulties.
Stating that this is a strategic road, Sangma said the road connects border area and some drastic steps must be taken to improve connectivity in the border areas.
Pyngrope said there will be a meeting after the inspection and suitable recommendations will be made to the government.
The residents of the villages along the India-Bangladesh border continue to face neglect and the Border Roads Organisation had handed over the Balat Shella road to state PWD in 1985 and since then no repair was done. “Majority of people residing in the area are farmers and we have only two markets- the old Balat market and the Border Haat and if at all we want to sell our produce in Shillong, the transportation cost is high and we get very little profit,” said Amit Koch, a local resident.
Another local resident, Manik Hajong, said the area does not have any proper road and people mostly travel by Sumos as local taxis cannot reach.
According to Hajong, the life of the people in the area is miserable.
The demand for improvement of road has been made by several times, but in vain.
The FKJGP unit of Mawsynram has submitted a memorandum for the improvement of road. Another memorandum was submitted by the people of Dangar area for the improvement of road.
Media team stranded
The PAC had taken a media team to cover the visit of the committee. During the onward journey, there was one convoy infront of the PAC team and another behind the vehicle of media persons.
However, during the return journey, the convoy accompanied only the PAC team leaving the media persons behind which led to the vehicle carrying them arriving late at night.
