Village road waiting completion since last several decades

Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, Jan 19: The road leading to Lohabarrick Village from Memiyo Junction of South Andaman is a classic example of how people of these Islands suffer just because of lack of coordination between various departments of A & N Administration.

In late 1960s a few people purchased agricultural land at Lohabarrick and started living in the remote, inaccessible and impossible area. There was no electricity no road. People had no other option than cross deep jungle by feet everyday to come to the Mamiyo Junction for Bus or other transports. Over past several years, hundreds of people settled in Lohabarrick area and started demanding for a road and electricity.

In late 1990s after intervention of the then Member of Parliament, Mr. Monoranjan Bhakta the village got electricity and a village road was constructed to connect Lohabarrick village from the Mamiyo Junction.

But the work didn’t complete even after nearly two decades. The Andaman PWD, which carried out the work initially, left two patches of the road, incomplete and the reason was never communicated to the villagers.

When Zilla Parishad got most of the village road, it was communicated to the villagers that the road belongs to the Zilla Parishad while Zilla Parishad said they don’t own the land. This confusion continued for nearly six years, when someone in the village managed to gather documents, which proved the road belongs to the APWD.

Angry villagers when questioned officials of APWD, it was communicated that the two stretches road was left incomplete because the two patches falls inside the Forest area and hence clearance has to come from Ministry, while officials in Forest Department never came out with a clarification on the said road.

Poor villagers, mostly illiterate, had no other choice than accepting the incomplete road as a part of their life. Moreover rest of portion of the road, where roads have been constructed, also gave nightmares to people as those road stretches remain in horrible shape. In some portion the layers of road have gone completely missing.

Now neither auto nor taxi enter inside the area because of the horrible condition of the road, students of the village have to walk nearly four kilometer everyday to reach to the main road. Those who got vehicles in the village, often get flat tyres. Emergency patients have horrible time reaching nearby hospitals.

But recently a reply to a Parliament question asked by Mr. B P Ray, Mr. Pradeep Jain Aditya, Minister of State in the Ministry of Rural Development has informed no request for construction of rural road has been received from A & N Islands and not pending in Ministry level. The Minister had also stated that the repair and maintenance of rural roads rest with the state governments.

This clearly means that the problem could be solved by the Administration at its own level and there is no necessary to wail for a clearance from the Ministry of Forest and Environment.

This story of the paralysed road is yet another example of how some departments of A & N Administration give last priority to the need of common man and keep things pending for years and years. This story also reveals as how people of these Islands suffer due to lack of coordination between various departments of A & N Administration.

The story of Lohabarrick road is just an example, there are thousands of such stories of Administration’s negligence and lethargic approach towards the cause of common man.

The trend of conducing surprise visit and village inspection by Lt. Governor and the Chief Secretary has gone completely missing. Administration behaves like an Island and Islanders are treated like aliens.