Imphal, October 21: A number of student organisations, including the Tousem Hqs Students' Union, Zeme Students' Union, Imphal, Zeliangrong Union, Tousem Zone, and Zeliangrong Students' Union, Manipur have appealed to the Govt to take up the necessary work to build the Makru bailey bridge along the Tamenglong -Tousem-Halflong road.

In a statement issued to the press, the student bodies said that though work on the said road was taken up in 1980 no progress has been made.

Following public pressure, the construction work of the Tamenglong-Tousem-Halflong road was handed over to the BRTF in 1994 during PR.

However no progress was made and on March 13, 2003, the State Govt decided to take back the work from the BRTF and following this it was decided that the NEC would be approached to fund the road construction work.

NEC has sanctioned Rs 2 crores till January 6, 2004.However no work has been taken up to make the Makru bailey bridge fit for vehicular movement, said the student organisations and added that if the bridge is not repaired properly, the construction of the said road would be rendered meaningless.

The non-progress of the work and the condition of Makru bridge means that more than 30,000 people of Tousem sub-division are effectively cut off from the rest of the State, said the statement and added that other than the mentioned stretch of road, there is no road connectivity between Tousem and Tamenglong district headquarters.

The statement further said that Tousem sub-division has been facing acute shortage of rice this year and drew the attention of the FCS Department to the situation prevailing at the sub-division.

The student bodies also appealed to all underground organisations and others not to intervene in any development works being taken up in Tousem.

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