SABROOM: Despite being repeatedly hailed by ruling party leaders as the “Gateway of Northeast India,” Sabroom Nagar Panchayat in South Tripura district is grappling with a severe civic services crisis, according to residents across multiple wards.
Roads throughout the town have fallen into disrepair, with locals alleging that despite the presence of concrete drains on both sides, there is no functional drainage system. Overgrown vegetation along roadsides has choked the drains and, residents claim, turned into breeding grounds for snakes and insects.
Residents further allege that during monsoon and even light rainfall, sewage overflows onto the streets, with the stretch from Sabroom Sub-divisional Hospital through Ananda Para to Thakur Palli routinely submerged under knee-deep water.
Streetlight outages have compounded the problem, with electric poles standing without functioning lights across several densely populated wards. Students, including tribal and indigenous children from remote parts of the subdivision attending schools in town, are said to be among the worst affected, often relying on mobile phone lights to move around after dark.
Residents also flagged irregular execution of TUEP (Town Unemployment Eradication Programme) work, now administered under VVGiramji, claiming it runs for barely 12 days a year across two phases, and criticised the unpredictability of drinking water supply.
Locals questioned why municipal taxes continue to be collected in full despite what they describe as a steep decline in service delivery, demanding accountability from the Nagar Panchayat administration.
The Nagar Panchayat administration has not yet issued an official response to these allegations.