GUWAHATI: The Arunachal Pradesh government has promised a bridge after the people of Rime Moko, Pidi Rime, and Tode Rime villages in the West Siang district threatened to boycott the 2024 Assembly election.
The government also assured a bonus – an all-weather road making travel between the three villages and the world beyond faster.
A week ago, the villagers got together and decided to boycott the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls next year if the government failed to construct a permanent bridge over the Hijum, a tributary of the Pisam.
The villagers have been demanding a bridge since 2014.
“We have decided to sanction funds for the construction of the bridge and an all-weather road over the Hijum. Instructions have been given to the departments concerned to expedite the process, including survey and preparing an estimate,” government spokesperson Nyamar Karbak, who is also the local BJP legislator, said.
The Rime Welfare Society (RWS), which handles local issues of the three villages, said the people had been risking their lives to communicate with the rest of the world via a rickety 20-metre log with a wooden railing on one side to hold while crossing.
The makeshift bridge cannot be used during the monsoon season when it goes below the water level of the Hijum.
“The government assured us the completion of the road and bridge before March 2024. An official team had surveyed the site for the bridge on August 10,” RWS general secretary Pokpe Rime said.
The villagers’ poll-boycott threat, however, remains.
“We will call it off if the government is serious about its promise and delivers,” he said.
