TURA: Several hundred citizens of Dainadubi and its adjoining villages in North Garo Hills joined hands on Saturday to hold a public rally demanding the establishment of a community and rural development block in their area for speedy development of their region which has witnessed stagnation in the sphere of developments for years.
The rally took place in the light of several meetings held in the past between the public, village headman (Nokmas), student and NGO leaders which led to the formation of a committee to demand for a C&RD Block.
The leaders of the committee met Meghalaya Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma, in December, last year, and submitted a memorandum seeking the establishment of the government block.
Saturday’s rally, spearheaded by the womenfolk of Dainadubi and its adjoining areas, took place at Bangsi Apail school playground and included a procession through the main market centre of the town.
“Demand for a block at Dainadubi began in 2016 because there were many complaints from various quarters which felt the Block offices of Resubelpara and Kharkutta were too far away for them,” said president of the C&RD Block Demand Committee, Jaffrey Momin.
“There are various problems faced by our people when they have to visit the Block. Going to the Block currently means leaving all you household work with no guarantee that there will be officers to look at your work. It means a waste of time and money for some. Having the office closer will make things easier on the population,” said general secretary Gilsang D Shira.
The proposed Block will cover 102 villages with 6369 households and a population of 46579 (2011 census). The committee is also seeking that the new Block include Damas in the west, Chilpara in the North, Jambal in the east, with Wageasi and Gambil in the south.
“There have been very positive responses from authorities on our demand for a new Block and we hope that converts into actual work and the formation of our Block,” added Jaffrey.
Reasoning that the creation of a new Block would also help in job creation, the committee said it would continue pushing forward till the demand was met.
“Development will come closer to home and that is what we want. We have a huge population and a huge area to cater to and for all of them the C&RD Block will be a life changer,” added Gilsang.
The Block Demand Committee has further decided to approach all stakeholders and make a village to village level awareness on the demand to make it stronger in the coming time.