Shillong, June 10: Deputy Chief Minister in-charge PWD (Roads) Prestone Tynsong on Monday appealed to Bindas Syiem to call off her hunger strike demanding construction of Nongpoh-Umden-Sonapur road.
Speaking to reporters, Tynsong assured that the state government will take up with Centre for immediate sanctioning of over Rs 100 crore for reconstruction and widening of 20 km road from Nongpoh up to Umden and for construction of 39 km of road from Umden up to Lum-nongrim.
The strike by Syiem, a resident of Umden, entered the fifth day on Monday.
Tynsong said in March, the state government was able to submit through the North Eastern Council (NEC) to the Ministry for Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER) for allocation of funds for the reconstruction and widening of 20 km road from Nongpoh to Umden at a cost of Rs 51-52 crore.
“The detailed project report (DPR) is being prepared and within few days, DPR will be submitted to the planning department and then again, we will send it to NEC and NEC will forward it to the Ministry of DoNER,” he said
“Ultimately Chief Minister and myself will go and meet the Minister of DoNER along with officers of the Ministry to push for immediate sanction of this particular project”, he said.
Tynsong said the government had proposed to convert the road from Nongpoh to Umden into an intermediate lane and not single lane considering the traffic volume of that area.
He said the scheme relating to the second phase of the project from Umden up to Lum-nongrim (39 km), which will connect with the national highway up to Byrnihat, was already included in the PMGSY-III at the cost of Rs 50-51 crore.
“The total amount for the two projects will cross Rs 100 crore. I am very sure these roads will really help those villages all along this road right from Nongpoh, Umden and towards Lum-nongrim.”
“With this clarification, I would fervently request Bindas Syiem to discontinue her fasting as far as fighting for repairing and for reconstruction of this particular road since I have already explained. In fact today I have invited her also to meet me but even now since she could not meet me in case if she’s still not satisfied with my clarification, the door is open to meet me anytime whenever she wanted but from the government and department, I would again request through all of you, Kong Syiem do call off or discontinue her fasting or hunger strike,” he said.
A few days ago, he had also asked the district administration along with the executive engineer to meet Syiem and to explain about the status of the project.
“But despite this, till this moment she is still continuing with her hunger strike protest”, Tynsong said.
The project was conceptualized long time back, the deputy chief minister said.
Tbe MLA and MDC of Nongpoh constituency and other leaders from Umden and Marmain area had also met him three-four times requesting the need to repair the road, which is in a deplorable condition.
“In fact in the last tenure of the MDA government, we have already included it in the priority list of the World Bank. However, due to the crossing of the amount earmarked by the World Bank, we could not implement this particular project,” he added.
