Tura, July 31: More than 500 youths from the plain areas of the West Garo Hills today erupted in anger and demanded immediate repair of the road from Agia in Assam to Garobadha in Meghalaya.
The protesters gathered at Bhaitbari playground, about 55km from Tura, and took out a peaceful rally through the town.
They expressed concern to reporters on poor road connectivity and blamed chief minister Mukul Sangma for being partial to his home constituency Ampati in the South West Garo Hills.
"Road connectivity in the South West Garo Hills has improved a lot. The road connecting even small villages with 50 households are better than our main road, which is the lifeline for nearly 2 lakh people," said Mostafa Kabir, secretary of the Anti-Corruption League (ACL), a pressure group from the Bhaitbari-Rajabala area.
He criticised Mukul for working in the interest of his home constituency and neglecting the other parts of Garo hills and particularly the plains, which is dominated by the minorities.
"As chief minister it should be his responsibility to work for the holistic development of Meghalaya but the condition of our road is a testimony of his government's step-motherly attitude towards minorities," Kabir added.
The organisation said the chief minister claimed that the plain areas would reap the benefits of the new connectivity from Srirampur in Bengal via Dhubri in Assam and Phulbari in Meghalaya (NH-127 B), where India's longest 14km bridge would be built over the Brahmaputra, but the need of the hour was immediate connectivity for the people.
"The proposed new route and bridge from Dhubri to Phulbari may take years but we want a solution right now," said Nur Islam, a member of the All Meghalaya Minority Students Union (AMMSU).
In 2013, though the 50km stretch of road from Singimari to Agia via Rajabala, Bhaitbari, Phulbari and Tikrikilla was repaired, it was damaged within five months.
The protesters in today's rally has asked the government to blacklist old contractors, who are to be blamed for the sorry state of roads in the plain belt.
Recently, Tura Lok Sabha MP Conrad Sangma submitted a plea to Union minister for road transport and highways and shipping Nitin Gadkari to declare the stretch from Agia to Garobadha a national highway and speed up road development.
