Imphal, July 25: Traffic came to a halt along the Senapati stretch of the Imphal-Kohima highway as the Senapati District Students’ Association began their 24-hour bandh at midnight last night.
The bandh was called to protest against the Manipur government’s lackadaisical approach towards repairing National Highway 39.
The Imphal-Kohima national highway, the main supply line for Manipur, has not been repaired in the past five years and is now in a dilapidated condition.
The students’ association is demanding that either the state public works department repair the road soon or hand over the job to the Border Roads Organisation.
It has threatened to impose an indefinite economic blockade along the national highway if the Okram Ibobi Singh government fails to respond positively to their demand even after the bandh.
The All Tribal Students’ Union, Manipur, has already imposed an economic blockade along the Imphal-Kohima and Imphal-Jiribam highways since July 15 midnight to demand a clear job reservation policy.
While supply trucks stopped their services after the blockade, passenger buses and taxies continued to ply along the Imphal-Kohima highway.
Today, however, no vehicle plied along the highway in Senapati because of the bandh. Reports reaching here said the bandh was total with banks, offices, educational institutions and market places remaining closed.
This is not the first time that the students’ association has imposed an economic blockade to demand repair of the highway. It had observed a 14-day blockade in November last year, but suspended it after works minister K. Ranjit Singh promised to have the road repaired.
“The road has not been repaired for the past five years. The works minister’s promise proved to be hollow as the condition of the road has not improved even after eight months. If the administration does not wake up to the condition of the road even after the 24-hour bandh, we will impose an economic blockade,” a spokesperson of the association said over phone today.
More than 100 trucks and buses remained stranded at Mao, Manipur’s gate to Nagaland, because of the blockade and the bandh.
The government is providing security escort for supply trucks but the truckers are unwilling to go with them fearing a backlash after the blockade. The truckers also complained that the security escorts were not adequate and the blockade supporters damaged their trucks by pelting stones despite the security.
Sources said the LPG stock at Sekmai bottling plant in Imphal West was alarmingly low after the trucks supplying gas stopped their service. The stock for petrol, kerosene and diesel at the government depot has been reduced to 19 days, 27 days and 18 days respectively.
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