Cabinet Minister and UDP MLA from Khliehriat Constituency Kyrmen Shylla on Monday urged Ministry of road transport to speed up the repairing work of the dilapidated NH-6 which is the lifeline of not only the people of East Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya but also several other states.
Talking to Meghalaya News 24, Shylla said the bad condition of the road in East Jaintia Hills affects the livelihood of the people, even the interstate travellers’ complaints about the poor road condition.
“I would like to request the authority under Government of India to kindly speed up the repair work because it’s a matter of livelihood for the people. There are times when ambulances could not reach hospitals on time because of the dilapidated condition of the road,” the Minister said.
While sounding optimistic on the initiative taken by the centre for the development of road infrastructure of Northeast, the UDP legislator from Khliehriat Constituency said, “I feel that the Government of India should take care of us. I would like to request the public of east Jaintia hills, we are with them no matter what we are here to serve them if nobody is listening we will try to find a way out how to do it. But I believe that, the Government of India will not leave us and for this the deputy commission he tried his best.”
While supporting the public protest at East Jaintia Hills today against the failure of the State government and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to repair the dilapidated NH-6, he said, “We have seen because of the bad roads in East Jaintia there is a huge protest by the people of East Jaintia Hills and not only that even the travellers those who came from Ratacherra and Silchar side, the users of that roads complaints.”
“From time to time, the deputy commissioner of East Jaintia Hills is in talks with NHAI authority to look after the road and from his side he is requesting NHAI to speed up the work. We got a reply from them mentioning that since it’s the rainy season they cannot do the black topping,” Shylla said.
The MLA from Khliehriat Constituency also pointed out that the running of overloaded trucks damages the road.