South Hailakandi people facing surface communication problems

South Hailakandi people facing surface communication problems

From Our Correspondent HAILAKANDI, June 23 – A large number of people of entire South Hailakandi, mainly in the Assam-Mizoram bordering areas of the district, are facing extreme difficulties due to the dilapidated conditions of the bridges on NH - 154.The Assam-Mizoram bordering point in Bairabi is about 70 km away from the nearby Lala town of Hailakandi district and there are 14 bridges in between Lala and bordering village Bairabi in NH - 154. Of them, only two bridges are concrete and rest are wooden. The conditions of all the wooden bridges are very bad and some of the bridges have also become outdated for pedestrians also.The wooden bridge at Baldabaldi near Jamirabazar was damaged completely two months back but till today no action has been taken by the authorities to restore the communication of this part of NH 154. The construction of a bamboo sub-way is now under way for local people. Due to the collapse of this Baldabaldi bridge, the communication with Mizoram via Bairabi has totally been snapped. From Baldabaldi to Bairabi, the residents of about 35,000 people are cut off from the rest of the country.Namar Ali, a senior citizen of the Gharmurra locality, said that they were very much hopeful after the construction of inter-state National Highway 154 that their communication will be developed in this area but then though the road has been constructed no wooden bridges have been repaired or replaced. A doctor, who plies everyday on this road through transshipment system due to the collapse of bridge in Baldabaldi area, alleged that the people of the area are totally silent and have not raised their voice against this sort of snapping of road. Only a few people of the locality are concerned about the collapse of the bridge.The CRPF personnel of the Gharmurra camp are also facing extreme difficulties to reach their destination due to this.It is alleged by the daily passengers that a section of local small traders and touts are intentionally creating disturbance on both sides of the damaged bridges in order to earn some money. The people of the locality have also criticised the role of the Panchayat of the locality in this regard. A group of people of the locality have met the Excise & Border Areas Development Minister, Gautam Roy, the area also falls under his constituency, and sought his intervention to repair all the damaged bridges in this route including the closed one at Baldabaldi and he reportedly assured that he has asked the National Highway Division of State PWD in Silchar to take up the matter on priority basis.The deputy commissioner of Hailakandi, Tapan Chandra Goswami, said that he has also asked the concerned authorities to make alternative arrangements to improve the plight of the people.Officials visit Bilaipur area: A team of high officials from Guwahati comprising Dr Chiranjeev Kakoty, regional co-ordinator (North-east), and Dr BC Bhagawati, State surveillance officer, Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) recently visited the diarrhoea-affected Bilaipur area of Hailakandi district to assess the situation of the area. The joint director of health services, Hailakandi, Dr Samir Kumar Das, district surveillance officer of Hailakandi, Dr Tapan Kumar Bhattacharjee, data manager, Bijon Das and a team from Lala Block Primary Health Centre (BPHC) accompanied the team in the various inaccessible hilly villages of Bilaipur area.It may be mentioned here that the inhabitants of Kundanullah and adjoining villages are mostly Reangs who migrated from Tripura in 1962 and settled down there. The population of the area is about 2200 and Kundanullah village has no modern communication facilities including drinking water, roads, electricity etc. The life style of the people is also very unhygienic and the village has no sanitation system. The two officials of Guwahati later held meeting with the officials of all the BPHCs of the district and the officials of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) at the office chamber of the joint director of health services. They suggested to organise medical camps on regular basis in the area and also to provide some common drugs on diarrhoea, dysentery, malaria, fever etc. They observed that there were some cases of fever, jaundice and diarrhoea also in this area. The laboratory investigation done by the district hospital reveals this, they said. They also found that some of the deaths occurred in earlier dates. They praised the action taken by the Health Department of Hailakandi immediately in this regard. They stressed the need of the monitoring of the situation on day to day basis as the area is malaria endemic and the attention of the department is needed particularly on impregnation of bed nets. For this, they said that the manpower of Lala BPHC must be strengthened.Earlier the deputy commissioner of Hailakandi, Tapan Chandra Goswami also visited the area and suggested the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department to set up Tara pumps and low cost sanitary latrines there. Source: http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=jun2408\State1