Some parts of Meghalaya have remained unchanged. The roads are in a dismal shape. Recently the heavy rains have washed away most of the black topping on many of the roads in East and West Khasi Hills; not to speak of Garo Hills where the basic infrastructure in most cases has not even been created. One of the greatest indicators of under-development is the absence of roads. The Shillong-Mawsynram road for instance has been hugely eroded in the recent rains. What is observed is that even if repairing does take place the quality of materials used are of sub-standard quality thereby indicating that there is large scale corruption in road building and maintenance. It is surprising that the CAG has not looked at this aspect and monitored the processes of road building in Meghalaya and evaluated whether the roads are commensurate to the money spent.
Till today, Garo Hills is connected to the rest of Meghalaya only through Assam. The earlier road from Shillong- Nongstoin- Nongshram- Williamnagar- Tura etc remains in a state of disrepair. This has put us at a great disadvantage as we are at the mercy of Assam. If there is an Assam bandh, people of Garo Hills cannot come to Shillong. The recent Garo-Rabha clashes along the Assam-Meghalaya border had made travelling unsafe. Thankfully, at the time the Pawan Hans helicopters did multiple sorties and people could somehow traverse between the districts. Now if similar incidents recur we would not even have the benefit of flying from one part of Meghalaya to another.
Building road infrastructure should have been a priority for Meghalaya. That it has not happened shows lack of political vision and an unwillingness of MLAs belonging to contiguous constituencies to sit together and chalk out a common road building plan. For instance the MLAs of West Khasi Hills, East and South Garo Hills could have made common cause to ensure that the Shillong-Nongstoin- Williamnagar road is completed at the earliest. These days there is no dearth of money if a project is shown to benefit a large population. It is time for the Chief Minister to made road projects in Meghalaya a priority.
Livelihoods depend on roads because products have to be marketed. Hence roads are the lifeline providing both backward and forward linkages to and from the markets. Roads should become an integral part of the Integrated Basin Development and Livelihoods Programme.
