A young Naga IAS officer has initiated a project of building a 100 km road in the remotest area of Manipur’s Tousem sub-division in Tamenglong district without the help of government funding.
An amount of Rs 101 cr was sanctioned by the center in 1982 but the project never took off due to unknown reasons, despite after several follow ups and promises. There was an outbreak of tropical diseases in the area and in the absence of motorable roads the patients could not reach the hospitals and lost their lives.
Most of the doctors were also not ready to visit the place to treat the patients. In such a situation, Armstrong Pame reached out in his friend circle and arranged the doctors who camped themselves in the village to treat more than 500 patients.
His determination became even stronger and he decided to build a road with the help of his family and villagers, without taking any aid from the government.
The family members, who have been struggling since six decades in this remote village, agreed to support him. A sum of Rs 4 lakh was arranged from his retired school teacher father’s one month pension, his brother’s and sister in law’s one month salary each, his younger brother’s entire first salary and Pame’s five months’ salary.
The amount was sufficient to kick start the project but more money was still required. Then came to rescue was Facebook. A page was created seeking donations, and an overwhelming response was received from all over the world and contributed Rs 1.2 lakh.
A 2005 graduate from St Stephen’s College in Delhi, Armstrong Pame is the sub-divisional magistrate of Tamenglong, his home district, and the first IAS officer from the Zeme tribe.
Donation centres have been set up in Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Guwahati, Shillong and Dimapur and NRIs from Canada, USA and the UK have been sending their contributions for the project christened as Tamenglong-Haflong Road.
Once the road is completed, a monolith will be erected and names of all donors will be inscribed.
The road will form a tri-junction with Nagaland and Assam over the Jiri River before entering the Dima Hasao district (formerly North Cachar Hills district) of Assam.