Our Correspondent
Kohima, Oct. 10 (EMN): Recognizing that good roads are vital for economic growth and considering the quality of roads in Nagaland, the state government on Tuesday convened a colloquium on road connectivity with various stakeholders with a view to garner open and constructive suggestions to usher better development of roads and connectivity in the state. The meeting, held at the State Banquet Hall, was attended by legislators, former legislators, contractors, engineers from different departments, NGOs, tribal organizations, student bodies, women activists, media and other civil society.
Delivering the keynote address, Chief Minister TR Zeliang said the government is aware of the growing dissatisfaction expressed by various sections of the people on the state’s infrastructure, particularly by the youth. Government has heard the voice of the people for a resolute change and transformation within us, Zeliang stated, and further assured that his government is ‘committed to better transparency and accountability and will enact and uphold mechanisms’ and that it is working for more effective service to the people and development of roads in particular.
Towards this, he proposed to form a ‘Committee on Roads’ on priority to work jointly with the concerned department for implementation of better roads and connectivity at the earliest.
“The thickened layers of corruption in the state, built over decades, have become a vicious cycle but we will ensure that we stand on accountability with the support and change of mindset amongst citizens themselves too,” the chief minister said.
Narrating about his experiences after launching his account in various social media platforms, Zeliang said he has seen different kinds of reactions from the youth towards the government. He said some have put forward constructive suggestions but many were merely content on criticizing the government alone, devoid of giving any good suggestion.
Talking on the importance of roads, he said the government aims to make Nagaland a nerve centre of connectivity to the rest of south east Asian countries. He stated that it is the responsibility of the government of the day to prepare concept papers and DPRs to get the sanction as per its vision document, but at the same time, the responsibility lies on the people or land owners to support implementation of the projects, especially on two fronts- oversee that the projects are implemented as per specification according to the approved DPR; and complete projects as per agreement between the department and the firm (contractor).
For the NGOs and public to do this, he stressed that transparency and accountability must be observed. “The implementing agency should come out openly and give proper information as to which department is responsible for which road and which firm responsible for which portion of the road. Good contractors will never hide their identity, but bogus firms/ contractors won’t like to come out and disclose themselves as their intention is not for development of the roads but just to make money out of the projects,” Zeliang observed. Pointing out that politicians will come and go but departments for development will remain as long as people exist in the state, he asserted that the need of the hour is to bring a change in the working system, wherever necessary. “If we set a proper system, our contactors will go into quality competition and our youth can get employed in unskilled and skilled work,” he observed.
He also stated that if engineers supervise the works regularly on the spot, wherever the road projects are built, the department can produce better roads and bridges to the people. While admitting that the government cannot perform miracles overnight, but he said, there has to be a starting point and he strongly felt that transparency within the department itself will be a good beginning.
“Without pointing our fingers to the past, we need to introspect and realise that we all share equal responsibilities in building our state. We must revive our work ethics and work culture and understand that everything cannot be alleviated by the coffers of the state. It needs the active participation of all the stakeholders to bring about a reformation and change within the state,” Zeliang stated.
Further, he urged upon the concerned agencies: national highways, NHIDCL, R&B and BRO to open accounts in social media and be more conversant with the people and the issues they are facing.
Minister for Roads and Bridges, Dr. Neikiesalie Kire highlighted during the event that except for few remote habitations, the state of Nagaland is connected by a road network stretching 12,079.80 km and 173 bridges under PWD(R&B). He informed that these roads fall under different categories - State Highway(SH), Major District Road (MDR), Other District Road (OM), and Village Road (VR).
While stating that this network of road connectivity has brought about changes in the lives of the people, Kire admitted that the present condition of this road network is not good condition. Nevertheless, he said the department is giving ‘all its efforts’ in the implementation of various projects under different programmes such as the Inter State Connectivity (ISC), Central Rood Fund(CRF), Economic Importance(E&I), Non-Lapsable Central Pool Resource(NLCPR), North Eastern Council (NEC), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana(PMGSY) and State Maintenance Fund.
“Inadequate maintenance of roads is resulting in the disturbances of traffic, hampering economic growth and increase maintenance cost of vehicles. For optimum utilisation of road assets, timely maintenance is the need of the hour,” the minister stated, asserting also that under no circumstances shall maintenance be regarded as a secondary issue.
Keeping this importance of road maintenance as one of its foremost priorities, he said the dept. has framed the Nagaland Road Maintenance Policy and forwarded the same to the state government for approval and notification.
Kire also pointed out that in order to maintain and sustain the existing road infrastructure assets for more than 12,000 km and 173 bridges, the annual fund requirement was worked out to nearly RS.300 crore annually, which will be a huge burden on the State Exchequer. Thus, to ensure that allocation of adequate fund as per the annual maintenance plans, he put across a suggestion that a dedicated road maintenance fund can be considered and created with funds received or collected from different sources such as central and state grants, user charges and fees, cess, levies, tax revenues etc.
The minister also highlighted the impact of climate change which has resulted in the high precipitation and intense rainfall particularly this year’s monsoon, severely affecting road pavements and structures under the department’s 24 working divisions.
At present, the state has 11 roads under PWD (National Highways) covering a total length of 1546.68 km while another six national highways stretching 795 km have recently been “approved in principle”. This was informed by the minister for National Highways, G Kaito Aye. The minister said the newly approved roads would connect all the district headquarters and cover three International Trade Centers at Longwa in Mon, Pangsha in Tuensang and Avangkhu in Phek, for which, a consultant has been appointed and preparation of DPRs were in progress and early sanctions are awaited.
Aye highlighted some of the major ongoing highway projects in the state: Dimapur- Kohima four lane road being taken up by National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL), two lane road from Botsa to Wokha (32.40 km) along Kohima-Mokokchung road, two lane road from 168 km to 183 km (15 km) along Mokokchung- Tuli section, construction of city road from Golaghat Junction Dimapur to Patkai Bridge Chumukedima (17 km), of which, the works are to take off shortly.
On the roads that have been “approved in principle” with a total length of 759 km, he said these include NH 29 to NH 29 total length of 2.7 km, Tseminyu-Zunheboto-Aghunato-Shamator-Noklak-Pangsha (200 km), Trans Eastern Highway from Mon-Longwa-Pangsha-Kiphire-Avangkhu (280 km), Gandhi Ashram Chuchuyimlang NH 2 to Pangsha ITC (167 km), Maibung in Tening to Tamenlong via Tamai in Manipur (75 km), and Sinulagari-Bihubar in Assam to Mon ( 71 km). Towards this, he appealed to all the tribal bodies to extend their cooperation in acquiring land made free from all encumbrances for successful construction of roads.
Appreciating the concept of the colloquium on roads connectivity involving stakeholders, Aye said provoking the government with constructive criticism is good and welcome but there is a limit where the government is unable to fulfil all the desires or the demands of the organizations, civil society and other concerned citizens.
He also talked briefly about some of the controversy-ridden road projects in the state. Under SARDP NE phase-I, he said the 329 km road construction works to connect four districts (Phek, Mon, Longleng and Mokokchung) failed to pull through amid litigation resulting in the cancellation of all the works for the previous contractor and the court reassigned the work to NHIDCL to take over. He informed that land encumbrance-free certificates are being awaited from Phek and Mon districts, following which, the works will commence.
The minister also maintained that roads do not belong to the government but that they belonged to the citizens and everyone suffer together when there are bad or no roads. As such, he appealed to all the tribal leaders for cooperation and active participation, particularly when it comes to land issues.
Aye also emphasized the need for the public to segregate issues, pointing out that the government’s duty is to bring the projects and channelize them through contractors. He said sanction of funds is not an issue anymore as it used to be, but how to kick off and how to complete are the main concerns at hand.
Departmental presentations were made by National Highways, NHIDCL, PWD (R&B), Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and also the Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA).
During discussion, representatives of different civil society raised questions on the workmanship and quality of roads particularly on BRO stretches. Maintenance of roads and allocation of works to capable contractors were also the core topics during the session, along with affects of climate change.
In a scathing observation, the Nagaland Public Rights Awareness and Action Forum (NPRAAF) on Tuesday wondered ‘what connectivity is the government talking about now only when people have already lost most of the roads and bridges to connect to other side of their habitat?’
A press statement from the NPRAAF asked it the round-table held on Tuesday was ‘a colloquium on connectivity after the government has finished all money meant for development?’
“No amount of presentations showed by the various departments on ongoing works can erase the irregularities committed earlier. The conspicuous absence of MLAs from the other NPF party also sheds a different light about the meeting.”
While reporting the chief minister as saying that people mocking the government “will never bring the solution”, the NPRAAF retorted that ‘solution to corruption can came only from fearless investigation to bring out the entire truth.’
It stated that the chief minister’s statement – as seen from video footages circulated in the internet – that “after this consultation, let us see who will still go negative and who will come out with positive suggestions” was a veiled warning to those who demand clarifications from the government departments on various irregularities.
“NPRAAF will never be cowed down by such diplomatically crafted veiled warnings but will relentlessly fight for public rights until issues are arrived at logical conclusions. NPRAAF reiterates its demand to the government for setting up SIT headed by chief secretary to probe into the irregularities in various departments highlighted by NPRAAF in the local dailies. Initiative to request central investigating agencies to step in will be inevitable if the demand is wilfully ignored.”
