AGP demands immediate reopening of 'Stillwell Road'

New Delhi, Sep 15 (UNI) Charging the Centre with treating the eight States of Northern Eastern Region (NER) in a ''step-motherly'' manner, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) MP Sarbananda Sonowal today demanded the repair and reopening of the WW-II vintage ''Stillwell Road''.

Addressing mediaperson here today, Mr Sonowal said the Centre'e attitude was clear from the fact from the condition of the ''Stilwell Road,'' connecting Ledo in Assam's Tinsukia district to Malkythina in North Myanmar near Yunnan province of China -- built with the joint efforts of India, United States, Britain, China and South Africa and taking just three years to complete -- was the lifeline of the South East Asian Command (SEAC).

''However, this road fell into disuse after the end of World War II and the world forgot about the engineering feat of constructing a 273-mile through some of the roughest terrains imaginable. Today, there are few documents available about the road but even after 61 years the importance of the road is not only there but has gone up many-fold but our Central Government is not ready to use that road for the speedy development of that region,'' he said.

Mr Sonowal said in the recent talks with Myanmar, the main issue was the reopening of the same road, which is the ''economic respiratory system'' of the region.

''On one hand, the Centre is talking about the Look East policy but on the other hand, it is not helping the region's ''respiratory system'' by not allowing the early re-opening of this road,'' the AGP MP said, adding that once the road was reopened, the region would be able to exploit the markets of the South East Asian countries namely Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand as well as China.

''Today nearly 10,000 people today participated in a protest march on the Arunachal border against the Centre's apathy. The rally was supported by the All Assam Students' Union, North East Students' Organisation (NESO) and Assam Unnati Sabha,'' Mr Sonowal said, adding that he would be writing to President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue also.

UNI BKS VD KN1947