Peeved that the authorities have not heeded their demand to close down a weighbridge, the Hynñiewtrep National Youth Front pressure group with some members of the public blocked the road connecting the weighbridge in a protest action today.
The road leading to the weighbridge is not fully blacktopped, which leads to clouds of dust blanketing the area when trucks roll through.
Villagers sat down on the road to block traffic near National Highway 6. If the road is not blacktopped then the villagers want the weighbridge shut down.
District officials tried to placate the villagers with a promise that the issue will be solved in 10 days but they were unmoved.
“This is the third time we have organized a sit-in demonstration and demand that the Dhar Construction Company solve this problem, which has been bothering us for three years,” one protestor said.
A nearby school suffers some of the worst effects of the dust, with all its property, and even students, blanketed by it. The villagers cannot understand why the government does not use some of the revenue it earns through the weighbridge to repair the road.
