By Shyam Waikhom
IMPHAL, January 28: Villagers of a small village Bakuwa which lies some 17 km north of Noney in Tamenglong district continue to wait for a seasonal black topped road since some two decades back.
Bakuwa Village is today considered as the origin of the Inpui tribe, according to the villagers.
The village, they said has remained neglected by the government for long.
People have today got accustomed to the dust and mud found year long on their main lifeline which connects the village to Noney.
During a recent visit in December 2014, this IFP reporter found that the road starting from Noney is in a bad condition with not a single sign or patch of black-topping along the entire road stretch.
The road was filled with dust and is hard to believe that passenger vehicles are plying along the road which was expanded from a small footpath in 1995 by the Tamenglong MLA of the time Samuel Zendai.
However, unfortunately, the road has never been blacktopped, lamented Kh Arei Khulapka of Bakuwa village.
During the rainy season it is the worse, he said adding that the road get slippery and people had to walk for 17 km till Noney as vehicles are unable to stay on the road during the rains.
For any medical emergencies, patients have to be taken on stretchers till the Noney Health Centtre, he said.
However, the sufferings of the village and its people do not end here, he pointed out.
The bridge along the road is in a pitiable condition and many have been injured due to its condition, he reported.
The area had once been abandoned during an epidemic in 1918, however, many villages have once again been re-established in the past one or two decades, according to the locals.
They said Bakuwa Village was re-established in 1994 by the founder of Inpui Baptist Church Ipu Nameizendang.
Another villager, R Meiriba Khunbu had told this reporter that a team of the State government had recently conducted a road survey for the development of the 35 km long Imphal-Haflong road also known as KT road under Asian Development Bank funding.
The road passes through the village and once it is completed, the dream of the villagers to have a blacktopped road in their village would be fulfilled, he said adding sarcastically that there is however, no surety as to when the project will be completed.
It is not only the road condition which is hurting and hampering the development of the area, he said and added that the villagers are facing all kinds of problems.
PDS items are also not properly distributed in the area, he complained.
The villager also lamented that even though the village has very fertile lands and witness good vegetable production every year, due to the transportation constraints the farmers are unable to take their produces to Imphal.
They could only take their produce to Noney, he said.