Mokokchung, August 13 (MTNews): Residents of Marepkong Ward in Mokokchung Town opted to repair the ward’s main road themselves after the government failed to repair it for 12 years.
Funded by the community, church and well-wishers, residents of Marepkong ward are patching up road repair works on a length of around 1500 metres of the main road in Marepkong ward leading to ITI and 1000 metres leading to the Marepkong Reserve Forest.
Toshikaba, Marepkong Ward chairman, told Mokokchung Times that the last black topping of the main road was done in 2010, after which the government turned a blind eye to the deteriorating road condition, despite the fact that most government departments have offices and quarters in the ward.
Concerned about the road conditions, he added that departments such as the Fire Department, which has a station in the ward, have difficulty providing emergency services to the public. He cited the example of two houses that were recently razed down in Chuchuyimpang village on August 5, stating that the fire trucks had difficulty navigating past the ward’s deplorable road with their heavy load.
He also expressed concern about the road that ends at the Industrial Training Institute, observing that students would arrive late and miss lectures owing to vehicle breakdowns and poor traffic movement caused by the degraded road.
The chairman also stated that the ward has approximately 50% of its area designated as Government Compensate Land and houses departments such as Fire and Emergency Services, ITI, Indian Reserve Police, Police Station II, PHED, Forest Department, PWD, and others, as well as numerous government staff quarters.
He went on to criticize the government, which pledged during its inception that “all the wards roads in Mokokchung town would be repaired within 90 days,” claiming that “nearly all other wards now have decent roads, but as orphaned by their parents, the government decided to ignore its child Marepkong.”
In terms of the ward’s scope of development, the chairman stated that, in comparison to other wards, the government and private enterprises prioritize the ward region for growth since it provides for the possibility of many development avenues.
It may be noted that the main roads in Marepkong are plied on not only by light vehicles but also by heavy vehicles and emergency vehicles.