From Saurav Borah
PHULBARI: The poor condition of national highway 127-B, a ramshackle of a road, connecting 46 Phulbari legislative Assembly constituency in West Garo Hills to Tura via Rajabala and Selsella, speaks of neglect and disregard towards public convenience.
Worse still, the condition hasn’t changed much since the Assembly election in 2018, compelling a cross-section of residents of this border seat to look towards neighbouring Assam, which is a three hour ferry ride away, for daily activity and progress.
Be it patients, students or traders, crossing the river Brahmaputra en route to places such as Dhubri and Goalpara in Assam has been a routine affair in the wake of “perennial” connectivity ills that plague Phulbari, home to a dominant Bengali-speaking Muslim population, besides, to a lesser extent, people from communities such as Garo, Rabha, Hajong and Bodo, among others.
The Phulbari seat has 31,657 voters, including 16,080 male and 15,577 female.
“The internal roads are bad, not to mention the stretches connecting Phulbari to Tura. So once the under-construction 19-km Phulbari-Dhubri bridge, the second largest over water, comes up in the year 2027, the hours of the boat journey will make way for a convenient 30-minute road trip to Dhubri,” Moklesur Rahman Mondal, a trader sipping tea near the site of the bridge construction at Bangshidua, said.
Asked about the burning issues here, Mondal, 46, a resident of Shyamding, said, “Apart from poor road connectivity, health is an issue in the absence of adequate medical practitioners (there are just about four) and paramedical staff at the 200-bed community health centre here. Education is another issue as students, despite fund constraints and belonging to economically-disadvantaged sections, are compelled to cross the river to Assam to enroll in higher education institutions there in the absence of a government college here.”
“The situation is the same for job seekers who prefer taking up professional courses in Assam and outside the region for greener pastures,” he said.
Echoing his views, Sailit R Marak, 25, an unemployed youth from Shyam Nagar said, “There are financial problems in my family and I don’t have a job as yet. I am ready to vote with the hope that the new MLA turns out to be a people’s representative and opens up avenues of employment.”
Floods are a problem in the plains belt of West Garo Hills, and Phulbari is no stranger to the annual menace.
Locals say that about 8000 to 10000 people in villages such as Charbatapara, Haribhanga, Soleartek-Majirare and Islampur are affected by floods every year, particularly in June-July, with several hundred acres of paddy destroyed by the deluge.
“The remote/riverine areas are particularly affected by floods during the monsoon season every year. So, we hope that our would-be MLA is considerate and ensures timely relief and rehabilitation to the victims, besides finding a solution to combat the problem,” Mondal said.
Locals however told this correspondent that several households in villages now have drinking water under the Jal Jeevan Scheme.
Sharing his “report card” on the incumbent MLA’s work in the past term, Bolindra M Sangma, 48, a primary school teacher said, “The blacktopping across portions of the 8.5 kilometres of the embankment (called Nagabund), even as the work is not complete or up to mark, is a tangible development seen over the past term. We expect the new MLA to further widen and strengthen the dyke so that it protects the area from floods while people can also commute conveniently.”
The Phulbari-Chibinang road, which residents say was in shambles for at least three terms prior to 2018, has been repaired during the past term of NPP legislator S.G Esmatur Mominin, who jumped ship ahead of this year’s polls and joined Trinamool Congress.
“Previously, travel by the dilapidated road took about 45 minutes. Now, it takes hardly 15 minutes. We expect improvement of interior roads in these lines,” Sangma said.
“To be fair to the incumbent MLA, even as he could have done better, a couple of years of his five-year term were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added.
On the other hand, about three years back, the Feedback Energy Distribution Company Limited (FEDCO), a distribution franchisee of MePDCL, had taken over the onus of managing the system of supply of electricity to places in the plains belt region of West Garo Hills and South West Garo Hills.
“With FEDCO taking over the power supply work, we had to grapple with several issues, including inflated bills, power cuts and random load-shedding. The issues had time and again prompted forums such as the Garo Students Union and NGOs to voice their protest. We want this issue to be taken up by the MLA with the department under the new government,” the teacher said.
Residents also complain that the benefits of the schemes under PMAY-G, Focus and Focus Plus have not percolated to the grassroots in the manner that it should have. “There are anomalies in the job card scheme as well,” Sangma added.
Phulbari also houses at least seven cashew nut processing mills, including the first such unit (BR Industries) in the Northeast, at Shyamding, owned by octogenarian Makhanlal Agarwala.
“We started cashew nut processing in the mill back in 1981. Ever since, the mill (with an annual output of 2000 quintals of cashew sourced from Garo Hills) has engaged local labourers, mainly women, in processing activities. The processed cashew is dispatched to places such as Guwahati, Dhubri and Shillong as well as various parts of India,” said Agarwala, hoping that the new government encourages more entrepreneurs to create similar job avenues for locals.
NPP-TMC contest
Phulbari goes to the polls on February 27 and the stage is set primarily for a straight contest between Abu Taher Mondal of National People’s Party (NPP) and S.G Esmatur Mominin of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Monday, Mondal, an ex-MLA and former Speaker said, “Issues plaguing Phulbari have been a concern from the day I was elected the first time. My personal involvement for the uplift of education here has also led to one of schools top the board exam.”
“Unless you have quality education, our students cannot compete with students from Tura, Shillong or Jowai,” he said.
“In regard to road connectivity, during my time, most of the villages in the far-flung areas were connected. On the other hand, the power load factor has increased substantially and so has consumption of electricity. During my tenure, we tried to upgrade transmission and supply of power. Soon, a 132 KV substation will be operational in the state after the polls,” Mondal said.
“We lack infrastructure facilities in the healthcare sector and already we have flagged the issue before the chief minister,” the former Speaker said.
On the other hand, TMC candidate, Mominin says, “My only issue is development, which will be my key priority if I get a second consecutive term. As it is, at least two years of my term (during 2018 to 2023) was affected by the pandemic. Now, I will try to complete the Rongai Valley Medium Irrigation Project, which will benefit thousands of farmers, besides reducing the problem of flooding in Phulbari to a great extent.
Under the Rongai Valley Medium Irrigation Project, there are four embankments supervised by the project, which will benefit people in some parts of Rajabala and Tikrikilla as well.
“I shall also try to improve the condition of the Naga band (embankment) further for the convenience of the people while commuting and to protect the residents from the onslaught of floods,” Mominin said.