Demand for Dadenggre district gets louder

SHILLONG: The Dadenggre District Demand Committee (DDDC) held a meeting at Tikrikilla in West Garo Hills on Saturday.
The committee had previously held two meetings in Phulbari and Rajabala.
The meeting held at Tikrikilla Higher Secondary School was attended by Nokmas, educationists, senior citizens as well as NGO members. Naguapara MDC Dhormonath Sangma was also in attendance.
The demand for a separate district is being spearheaded by various NGOs of the region and will move to Dadenggre where a rally to continue the demand for a new district will take place next month.
“We have a population of over 3 lakh with an area covering six constituencies. In contrast, SWGH and NGH only have 3 to 4 constituencies. Dadenggre should have been made into a district earlier but that never happened. Our demand is convert it into a district,” said committee chairman Rupa Marak.
“Ours is a legitimate demand as our area is huge and there are tremendous difficulties in logistics and money required to go to Tura, which is close to 120 km away. To top it, the roads are terrible and cause enormous strain on people. Creating a new district will lessen the burden by less than half,” said president of Anti Corruption and Human Development Organisation Isrhaful Hoque during the meeting.
Senior citizen Sumitro Marak stated that the creation of a new district would create new job opportunities and will bring the administration closer to the people.
Exhorting the work being done on the demand for a new district, the principal of Tikrikilla Higher Secondary School sought more support for the movement while asking those striving for it to not give up.
“What you are doing will benefit all and the movement should be carried on till it is fulfilled,” said the principal while promising to support it in whatever way he can.
Similar thoughts were also echoed by those present during the meeting.
Promising to support the movement, the MDC of Naguapara felt positive of the creation of a new district.
“It will be a huge plus for all of us and the movement should be sustained,” he said. Dadenggre is possibly the largest sub division, in terms of both population and area and was created in the year 1982 along with the Civil Sub Divisions of Ampati and Resubelpara.