[caption id="attachment_203265" align="aligncenter" width="600"]
DWRD building (file photo)[/caption]
Our Correspondent
Kohima, Aug. 26 (EMN): This year’s monsoon continues to haunt the state, its people, as well as the government by way of destruction to infrastructure and houses through landslides and floods. Latest reports have come in that the three-storey building that houses the state’s Directorate of Women Resource Development (DWRD), near the Kohima Campus Nagaland University at Meriema, had to be evacuated due to intense sinking of land in the area.
It has been learnt that the directorate has been temporarily relocated to its old office premise at Bayavü Colony in Kohima, which was being used as a training centre of the department.
When contacted, an official of the directorate told Eastern Mirror that the entire area of the directorate building was being affected due to unstable soil. Apparently, the 100 or so employees of the establishment had to be evacuated as the structure had become unsafe: building’s pillars had sunk around six inches deep and cracks have developed in every room.
Engineers are said to be apprehensive that there was an undercurrent movement in the area due to which, the sinking of land was occurring every year, particularly during and post monsoon.
The official informed that the department has written to the state’s Geology and Mining department to conduct a detailed assessment of the area. Additionally, they have also asked the Geology department of the Nagaland University to survey the area.
Besides the main directorate building, staff quarters and two new structures in the area have also been affected.
“Even if the undercurrent movement of soil stops, the building will have to go for retrofitting as the foundation has been affected,” the official informed.
It was also learnt that due to the temporary relocation of the establishment, the department’s annual conference with partner NGOs which was being planned for August 10, had to be postponed indefinitely.
It is worth mentioning here that the DWRD land borders with that of the Kohima campus of Nagaland University, Meriema, and incessant rainfall had triggered landslides in the area, causing damage to the road leading to the DWRD and the university since July 30 last.
The Nagaland University Students’ Union (NUSU) has alleged that the road, which was constructed less than a year ago, had given in to the rains owing to poor quality of construction coupled with the instability of the area.
NUSU president Chongrokhum Sangtam said classes at the university had to be suspended for two days earlier this month as the road had been cut off from the area below NFA ground before DWRD due to cracks and sinking of soil, and about 70 percent of the students live outside the campus.
However, he informed that alternative arrangements were made for students, professors and other staff of the university who commute to the campus, and the university authorities have initiated repair works.
He said the main road leading to Pauna Men’s Hostel in the campus was totally cut off, but the authorities led by the Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof. RC Gupta himself have started construction of a new approach road to the hostel. Inside the campus, it was informed that several affected quarters had to be demolished and cracks were expanding in the men’s hostel but it was yet to be evacuated.
The NUSU is concerned that while road restoration works were being carried out in the campus, who would take up the repair works outside the campus gate.
Accusing the Nagaland government of ‘not being serious’ about constructing roads at Kiphire district in the aftermath a landslide that cut the district off for four weeks straight, the Seyochung Area students Union (SASU) has threatened to organise a ‘Gandhian peaceful demonstration’ if said roads were not built ‘within a couple of months.’
In a statement issued on Sunday, the union requested the chief minister to visit the district and ensure early construction of roads between Meluri and Kiphire.
