Meghalaya residents clash with Assam police over PMGSY road construction

    15-Sep-2019


TNT
NONGSTOIN, Sep 15: A day after a scuffle broke out between the residents of 15 villages under Riangdo block in West Khasi Hills and the Assam Police over the construction of a PMGSY road in Ranighat village under Rambrai-Jyrngam constituency, the local MLA, Kimfa S Marbaniang today informed that he will be meeting the Meghalaya Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma on Sep 16 to apprise him of the situation.
“I will be meeting the CM tomorrow to talk about this issue at Ranighat and other similar incidents in the constituency,” said Marbaniang.
CM Conrad Sangma is scheduled to have a meeting with the chief minister of Assam very soon to discuss on the interstate boundary disputes.
It may be mentioned that this area is among the 12 disputed areas between Meghalaya and Assam.
What happened on Sep 14
A scuffle broke out between the residents of the 15 villages under Gijang A.Khong and the Assam Police after the latter tried to stop the construction of a 6.5 km PMGSY road in Ranighat village.
Sources informed that the driver of a truck and a JCB were also arrested. Local villagers alleged that the Assam police from Hahim Outpost under Kamrup district of Assam, came, seized all the materials and also threatened the workers forcing them to halt the entire construction.
It was further informed that the construction of this road was started a year ago but due to heavy rains, the work could not be completed within the stipulated time frame.
“But when the work finally resumed, Assam police came to the village in full force to stop the construction work,” said the source.
Plight of the border residents
The residents lamented that due to this long-pending dispute, the people are left to suffer and are deprived of infrastructural facilities, health care services and educational institutions.
“This road is the only lifeline of the 15 villages as it connects to the highway but it is in deplorable condition. Out of the 10 km stretch of road, only 6.5 km was to be repaired but now even that has stopped,” said an aggrieved villager.
“Our children had to tread the 10 km road to get to their schools because of lack of facilities. How long are we supposed to live like this? How long should we suffer?” he questioned.
Disputes after disputes
The Rambrai-Jyrngam MLA, Kimfa S Marbaniang informed that this is not a new issue. Months ago, a similar incident took place in the area while adding that every time, any developmental work takes place, issues such as these always crop up.
“The Assam police would come in full force and because this is a disputed area, the developmental works are always delayed,” he said adding that there are other disputed areas across the boundary which experience similar tensions.
It may be mentioned that 90 percent of the residents in the disputed area possess ID cards issued by the Government of Meghalaya with majority of the residents being Garos.