The news that Moolamylliang village located in Saipung Block, East Jaintia Hills will not be able to celebrate its annual Christmas festivities which have become synonymous with a booming tourism culture as people visit the village to witness the Christmas spirit there, is depressing to say the least. The reason for not holding its Christmas celebration where the entire village participates is owing to the dilapidated road condition which has deteriorated to a point where it is impossible to drive over it without being enveloped in a dust cloud. This shows the inequitable development in Meghalaya and the lack of accountability of the State Public Works Department which constructs roads that do match up to the standards prescribed by the Indian Roads Congress which specifies the width of the road and drainage. In large parts of Meghalaya road construction does not include side drains, hence during the monsoons all the water flows onto the road and erodes the poorly laid bituminous layers which all too often don’t conform to the quality and thickness required.
Even within Shillong city roads are built to last one season only so that contractors continue to make money from road repairs. Travelling to rural Meghalaya is dangerous as roads are constructed to fit one vehicle only. When an oncoming vehicle meets with another from the opposite direction, one of them must drive to the side at the risk of falling into a drain or a precipice. Unfortunately, no PWD engineer has been questioned or punished for poor road construction, nor has any contractor been blacklisted for roads that show signs of eroding and developing craters within 6-7 months. Is this not why the social audit institution was created? Sadly, this institution like all others is in a state of somnolence instead of taking stock of all construction works of the State PWD. It is a well known fact that corruption is embedded in the PWD and PHE Departments. A walk through the forests of Meghalaya will reveal dozens of pipes lying unused. Obviously, the contractor who supplies water pipes to Meghalaya has made his/her money but the PHED is yet to fit those pipes to water sources.
Moolamylliang is at a distance of 10 Kms from Khliehriat, the District Headquarter and had become a model for reclaiming areas hitherto given to coal mining. The village had taken a conscious decision to make tourism a selling point as an alternative to coal mining. The village tries to emulate Mawlynnong known as Asia’s cleanest village and the villagers have unanimously tried to maintain high standards of cleanliness and planted trees in areas that were earlier cleared for coal mining. Moolamylliang has been organising the Annual Christmas Lights Festival from December 18 to January 3 every year. During this period the entire village is lighted up with colourful light bulbs and every household takes part in this preparation. That this spontaneous, community driven event has to be shelved because of the decrepit road condition is a tragedy in the making. People of Moolamylliang must take this issue seriously and demand answers from their MLA and the State PWD.
