SHILLONG — Deputy Chief Minister in charge of PWD (Roads) Prestone Tynsong has hit back at VPP president Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit over the death of a child in the Rambrai area, accusing the VPP leader of politicising the incident.
Tynsong said the circumstances in Domkynroh village, under Rambrai, have to be understood from the ground. According to him, the village did not have a road at all, rather than having a damaged or poorly maintained road.
“To clarify to Bah Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit or anyone speaking against this incident, this village is one of those that has never had a road. It is not that the road is bad; it is that there is no road at all,” Tynsong said.
He said the government has already taken steps to address the long-standing demand for road connectivity in the area. Tynsong said he had laid the foundation stone a few months ago for construction of the road through Rambrai towards Nongnah. The project has an allocation of ₹25 crore, with the preliminary work order already issued, according to the Deputy Chief Minister. Actual construction, he said, will begin after the contractor completes the necessary preparations.
Tynsong said the road is expected to connect around eight to nine villages that, according to him, have remained without road connectivity since Meghalaya attained statehood. The Dy cm also defended the government’s broader record on rural road connectivity, saying roads have been a priority since 2013 and that several villages which previously had no road access have since been connected.
Tynsong stopped short of claiming that the problem has been solved across the state.
“I am not saying 100 percent of the work is completed; there is still a lot left to be done,” he said, while pointing to the scale of the challenge in reaching remote settlements.
He said the government cannot provide road connectivity to every unconnected village overnight, but maintained that work to extend roads into interior areas is continuing.
