IMPHAL, August 11: The Samu Lamlal Tribal Development Block which was inaugurated by the then Chief Minister of Manipur Rishang Keising in 1988 lies in a deplorable condition after its office was shifted to Churachandpur.
This was informed to the media by Samu Lamlal TD Block Advisor M Lairanjao who also expressed his opposition to the State cabinet’s decision of announcing five new sub-division blocks excluding Samu Lamlal.
Inaugurated by Rishang Keishing on January 24 1988, the block office was shifted to Churachandpur after 3 months in a rented room, he said, adding that the younger generations are facing many problems while collecting their ST certificates, Domicile certificates etc.
Further stating that it takes two to three days to acquire these certificates because the TD Block is located in Churachandpur, Lairanjao said the functions of the Samu Lamlal Block is negligible in delivering official benefits from any Central sponsor schemes and old ages pensions schemes except the MGNREGS scheme to their locality.
All the problems had emerged on account of shifting the Block Office to Churachandpur and none of the villagers received any benefits till date despite their names being in the lists of beneficiaries, he said.
Officials of the Block maintained that they were not able to work from here as it was unsafe, he added.
According to Samu Lamlal Sub-Division Demand Committee general secretary M Rekhupsong, recently the State government has allocated Rs. 7 crores for developing a Block Development Office, Sub Divison Office, Police Station, Bank, Family Quarters and Police Barracks in the block.
The approach road is being black topped for the first time in the area under the initiative of Local MLA TN Haokip, he added.
Calling the Government’s decision of announcing five Sub-Divisions recently which don’t have TD blocks such as Bungpi Chiru of Sadar Hills and Thangthing in Churachandpur as welcome but unfortunate from their point of view, he said their TD block was the oldest but it wasn’t provided such an opportunity even though they have submitted several memoranda for upgrading their block to Sub-Division from the period of the then Chief Minister Nipamacha and recently in 2013 to Okram Ibobi.
Rekhupsong said, “The block fulfils all the criteria of being upgraded to a Sub-division. As per the norms, the block must have 100 villages. Our block covers the two Assembly constituencies of Saikot and Henglep with a population of 40 to 50 thousand.”
The construction of various government infrastructures in the Samu Lamlal block is 80 percent construction. So, we strongly demand the resumption of the functioning of the TD Block office in the area by upgrading it to a sub-division, he said adding that upgrading the block to a sub-division will avail benefits of Central sponsor schemes.
