The project affected landowners and families of I-K-T Road under ADB assisted SRCIP project channel no. 88+100 to 89+200 within the jurisdiction of phalong 3 (Pumtiang), Phalong Village, Tamenglong District, Manipur on Monday served an ultimatum to the government.
In a statement, the affected families stated that for the past seven years, the villagers have been facing many hardships due to the execution of the above mentioned project within the village like water problems, traffic congestion due to the movement of heavy machineries, damaging terrace farm due to the improper dumping of debris besides many other environmental impacts.
Since then, the villagers have been cooperating with the concerned Authority/Government and welcomed the timely execution of the project, thinking that it is for the welfare of the village and the community at large, they stated.
However, the villagers and affected families have lost confidence in the concerned authority/Government and the work agency or company and lost our patience since they do not pay heed to the grievances addressed by the affected families, it stated.
The project affected landowners and families drew the attention of the concerned authority and demanded to expedite the joint survey and release the entitled compensation at the earliest within January 31, 2024.
“There has been scarcity of drinking water for the last nine years. Due to the destruction of village water point of source, deforestation, faulty dumping of debris soil by the IKT road construction, there has been a lack of quality drinking water. Moreover, many wet fields, natural rivers, streams and rivulets have been destroyed too.
Further the movement of heavy vehicles or machinery passing through the village creates lots of inconveniences and high risk of accidents”, the statement said.
While demanding for speedy and quality of works at the earliest the compensation issues must be in unison leaving aside all personal interest, they demanded.
Failing which, the project affected landowners and family will initiate a democratic form of agitation and if any untoward incident happened the concerned authority, government/work agency/company should be held responsible, the statement said.
