IMPHAL, May 22: The All Manipur Working Journalists Union today urged the government to look into certain problems confronting Jiribam and development works undertaken in the sub-division.
Speaking to media persons at the Manipur Press Club today, president Wangkhemcha Shyamjai said a team of the union led by himself had conducted a tour of the sub-division from May 15 to 17.
The three member team had inspected several development works undertaken in the sub-division to check whether the government is properly managing the resources available, he said.
He said completion of the ongoing construction of the railway line from Silchar to Lamding would take another few years, which could only heighten the problems of the transporters of essential commodities.
During the tour, the team was also told by locals that on November 26, 2013, an IED was recovered from under a bridge over the Chiru River after some suspected tribal youth were seen around under the bridge, he continued.
In another incident a tribal couple were arrested by a combined team of SDPO and the Assam Rifles while trying to fit an IED under the Lakhipur Koilapur Bridge, he said.
All such issues have only created a fear psychosis among the people of the area, he said before urging the government to look into the security concerns of the people at the earliest.
The government has an ambitious project in Jiribam which is 425 hectare of A Class tea plantation, however, complete ignorance and negligence of the government has reduced the plant to be used for personal gain by a few individuals, he lamented.
During the tour, locals complained that some workers at the plantation, while complaining of not getting regular salaries from the government are pocketing the money earned from the plantation, he said.
In North Jiribam, Vidhyanagar, according to sources, it is learn that there was once a big horticulture project, however without proper consent of the locals and no proper order, the government all of a sudden constructed a sports complex by removing the horticulture project, he said.
The team was also told that even though the complex is yet to be inaugurated, the sports complex has already develop signs of crumbling, the AMWJU president said.
He further appealed to the government to look into the issues at the earliest.
