Nagaland: Will these funny posters help improve NH-2?

KOHIMA: At the backdrop of incessant torrential rains in almost the entire Northeastern region of India, various National Highways have been reeling under a deplorable condition. The NH-2 is one such highway that has been left unattended despite its pathetic condition.

The Rengma VDB association under the Tseminyu Block in Kohima district had recently sought the attention of the State Government and NPWD NH for immediate execution of construction work at the 2 lane road from Botsa – Wokha NH – 61 from Km 41 to Km 73 so as to avoid "mass public protest" against the department.

As per the association, the portion of NH-2 passing through the Rengma areas has been left neglected since many years despite the fact that this is the only road that connects Kohima-Wokha-Mokokchung-Tuensang districts.

The association had also stated that due to the ill state of this road, many lives have been lost as many patients have also expired due to their inability to reach the hospital on time.

Since the matter had gone out of hand and there was no response from any authority regarding this issue, Rengma Selo Zi ( Rengma Youth Organization) launched a poster campaign in order to draw the State's attention to the deplorable condition of NH-2 .

Hoardings which read, "Japan had Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Ukraine had Chernobyl, Nagaland still has NH2", "Road money is for roads not family development", "Divided by distance, united by potholes", "Do not travel through NH2 if you do not know how to swim".

Just last month, the concerned citizens of Nagaland Forum had also carried out protests against bad roads in Dimapur.

These campaigns are meant to draw the attention of the concerned authorities towards the poor plight of the difficulties faced by the State people due to bad road conditions. Hopefully this initiative might be able to gather some useful attention.

(By Shweta Raj Kanwar)

(shweta@thenortheasttoday.com)