They say, it was planned and constructed with donations from among the Kuki-Zo community to facilitate road communication between the districts of Chandel and Churachandpur, and the Manipur government had no right to stop it. Yes, we are talking about the unauthorised construction of an RCC bridge at K Molnom village over the Manipur River in Chandel district. Acting on reports on social media of construction activities over Manipur River and a report in the print media, a team headed by SDO of Chakpikarong Sub-division in Chandel district accompanied by state forces, attempted to reach the construction site on Saturday.
However, the state official team was blocked by protesting Kuki women from reaching the work site. Thereafter, the team was compelled to retreat from the site after the stand-off. DC Chandel had issued an order issued on March 21 this year to stop construction of the bridge on Manipur River at K Molnom village after receiving reports, but it was never acted upon. We fail to understand why the state had to wait for reports in social media and newspapers before acting on such an illegal construction activity.
The next day, the state official team were able to reach the construction site after negotiations with the Chief of nearby K Molnom village and some other leaders. There, they found not a soul at the construction site and after getting an assurance of halting the work from the village authorities, the state team came back to headquarters. Imagine, just a few days back the site was bustling with construction activities and workers.
During the state inspection of the site, Kuki CSOs were working overtime on social media and raising hell against the state government move to stop the construction of the bridge. They say, the construction of the bridge between Khualmual and K Molnom over Manipur River in Chandel district is an initiative taken up on a voluntary basis due to the compelling needs of the concerned public since both the Sugnu bridge and the Serou bridge are no longer accessible to the Kuki-Zo people. They have even christened it ‘Selloitha bridge’.
The bridge will connect Chandel district with Churachandpur district to provide essential supplies. They swear that it was purely a community effort with generous donations. They had already constructed a motorable road across the mountain ridges passing through Kangchup-Koubru range connecting the districts of Churachandpur and Kangpokpi. Financing a road connecting districts or a RCC bridge is not something which could be achieved through donations, whatever be the claims. But we shall not go further into the financing part, although anyone with intelligence could draw conclusions on who really has that kind of money.
Ministers and MLAs may contribute some amount, but the substantial portion has to come from the cartels. What is exactly the objective of constructing the illegal Churachandpur-Kangpokpi road? Whatever be the claims, it is nothing but a smugglers route without the checkposts. Somehow it became a convenient passage for militants to move and travel with ease in the mountain ridges surrounding the valley.
Coming back to the bridge in question, the main concern of the state is not only on whether it is a government sanctioned project or the construction design and architecture is approved considering the safety of anyone using the bridge. Some experts even doubt whether it could be called a bridge given the supporting pillars. They say, it looks like a culvert without any engineering inputs rather than the structure of a bridge.
