Rabindranath Biswas
Diglipur, July 03: Commuting of the residents of Ward No. 06, Subhashgram village under Diglipur Tehsil was severely disrupted owing to the engulfment of the full width of the road by a nallah in the area a couple of weeks ago when a number of villages of Diglipur were inundated by the last devastating flood.
According to information, the residents of Ward No. 06, Subhashgram have been facing severe commuting woes since the recent flood when the raging nallah completely engulfed the full width of the rural road starting from APWD main road to Ganesh Das house via Basanta Das house. The age-old road is in a neglected state and reportedly there was no repair and maintenance of the road since its construction.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha Daily, the residents of the area said, “There is a nallah which eats away our land through erosion every year during the rainy season. And now the nallah has engulfed the road widthways a couple of weeks ago when a number of villages of Diglipur were inundated by the last devastating flood. In fact, due to the impact of this erosion, the flood waters got a passage to enter our land and caused havoc to our property. And it has put us in great difficulties thereby severely disrupting our lives; and most importantly, our school-going children are the worst affected”, they fumed. In fact, the nallah has not only engulfed the road in question but also it has swallowed up a sizable area of our land with standing plantations of areca nut trees, claimed Mr. Jagadish Das of the area.
The residents further said that erosion by river/nalla is a natural phenomenon and what is required is to arrest the erosion process by erecting retaining walls along the land/nallah side so that their land can be protected from this erosion. And they informed all the three PRIs about the rundown condition of this road and the elected members reportedly paid their visits to the spot and gave their empty assurances that the work would be taken up on priority basis, but they did nothing to alleviate their commuting woes, they further alleged. The villagers approached the officials of the APWD, CD, Diglipur and even the previous Member of Parliament and apprised them all of the tumble-down condition of the road, but they paid only lip service to the issue, no initiative was taken from any of the institutions so far and they have been facing the wrath of this situation for the last many years, they lamented.
On the other hand, the entire stretch of the road is in ramshackle state, and it literally doesn’t exist, it is filled with innumerable pot-holes and only some quantum of gravels can be seen on the road thereby rendering it to a complete unworthy for vehicular movement, the locals added. Initially the people of the area were told that a sixty (60) meter long “Retaining Wall” would be constructed at the site to arrest the erosion thereby protecting the road and their land, but the present scenario presents a different picture; it undeniably needs approx. 70-80 meter long “Retaining Wall” to protect the road and their land in the area, they insisted. In fact, had it been done earlier, the road as well as our land could be protected, but unfortunately the work fell victim to the incompetence and indifferent attitude of the institutions responsible for the work, the residents of the area didn’t hesitate to further allege.
However, the residents said that they shot up a letter to the Chief Secretary, A & N Administration and urged him to redress their problem on priority.
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