A Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, APRIL 9
Angry enough to act, residents of Lotha Colony in Dimapur on Saturday undertook a novel form of protest for the deplorable condition of their main road in the locality: they collected from among the community Rs. 80,000 to pay for work to fill potholes.
A mass social work of the residents started at around 5:30 in the morning with the young and the old alike participating in filling the numerous caters and potholes along their road covering a stretch of approximately 2.5 kilometres.
The community repairs were undertaken as an initiative organized by the Lotha Colony Council, Lotha Colony Mothers’ Association and Lotha Colony Youth Association.
The chairman of Lotha Colony, R Ezung, who also actively involved in the community repairs, lamented at the negligence of the urban roads in department by the government and its development departments. The Lotha Colony road, which links to various colonies and institutions comes, is said to come under the purview of the Public Works Department, according to the chairman.
Ezung said that the road, which also links Sewak Colony, was once maintained and repaired by the Sewak under the Border Roads Organization. However, the upkeep of the road has been ‘abandoned’ for more than 7 years ‘after some misunderstanding,’ it was informed. It was alleged that the road has never been repaired or maintained by the department till date.
The 2.5 kilometres road appears ‘deserted’ and apparently it has been without a black-top for more than 5 years. The colony’s people have been ‘maintaining’ the road and have been ‘repaired’ for more than five times during the past few years.
Lotha Colony, said to be a locality with fewer than 400 households, collected more than Rs. 80,000 to pay for filling potholes along their main road. Putting in hours of tireless efforts in making their colony road ‘travelable’ for commuters who passes by the road, it was a worthy protest indeed.
