ES Reporter

ITANAGAR, Sep 24: In 1947, in order to facilitate establishment of a government run school, villagers of Tabi and Ripo moved from their original settlements to a middle ground and named  the merged village as “Tabi-Ripo”. Seventy years later,  despite migrations from the village , it still  has more than 300 people- a large number by Arunachal’s standards. 
Bereft of any modern facility like road surface and telecommunication, even for administrative purposes the villagers go to the nearest town, Koyu which is just 15 kilometres away. Distance is not the challenge, it is the absence of a 100-metre span bridge across the  Hingen river that poses the biggest challenge for this sleepy hamlet. 
From May to November month, Tabi-Ripo is cut-off from the rest of the world.  
Till few years back, a hanging bridge at “Pikte “ connected Tabi-Ripo with the next village,  Saku Kadu en route to Koyu town. 
“But the villagers stopped using this bridge, built in 1980, since wire-ropes are precariously holding up and can snap anytime,” said a villager and added, there  has been no repair and maintenance of the hanging bridge. 'Instead of falling off from the height, we rather risk ourselves wading across the Hingen river even in the monsoon," he added.
Innumerable petitions  and proposals for a bridge  have been served to various authorities without any success. Ignored by the government and its representatives,  the villagers haven’t seen any senior government functionaries in its village for decades. 
It is not only the border villages that are facing the connectivity challenges, even the villages in the foothills, bordering Assam are greatly challenged. 
Won’t grand projects like Trans-Arunachal Highway, East-West Corridor and SARDP-NE  remain a farce if a village  such as this one is left out of developmental agenda? 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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