IAS Officer in Manipur Build 100km road using only volunteers and without Govt help

IAS Officer Armstrong Pame Builds 100 KM Road in Manipur Without Govt Help

Armstrong Pame, the senior district magistrate, had been waiting for funds the government had earmarked to build a road, but when a deadly outbreak of malaria left 150 local people needing hospital treatment in July, he and his family decided they could wait no longer. The patients, many of them seriously ill, had to be carried for two days on bamboo stretchers to the nearest hospital, and some died on the path. One of them was Mr Pame's uncle.

He and his relatives donated their salaries and established a Facebook page to raise more funds. More than 150 volunteers armed with shovels and a bulldozer and digger donated by supporters started carving a road out of the hillside in August 2012.

 

The road links the remote Manipur district of Tamenglong to Haflong in neighbouring Assam, the journey distance to the nearest good hospital will be cut to just five hours.

He is the 1st IAS from his Zeme Tribe of Tamenglong District in Manipur and currently serves as sub-divisional magistrate.