Narga and Barardih villagers await road construction through 16 years

Mail News Service

Jamshedpur, Feb 3: It is like sitting over the tallest sand dune in Kalahari Desert and praying for rain as the Orange River has dried up. The plight of Narga and Barardih villagers is almost the same if not worse. Reports of various schemes for rural people are seen in newsprint and electronic media but where there is no means of communication, not even the shadow of a road, how can development be reached out to the resigned and miserable denizens, is a million dollar question that Jugsalai Vidhan Sabha constituencies Narga and Barardih villagers have been asking through 16 long years. Some elders have stated that they no longer subscribe their preferences to partities and candidates but to individuals who promise them the laying of roads in these villages to enable residents to be connected to the main road. All these people so far have been confronted with promises that have been broken and forgotten through 16 long summers.

Residents of both villages recollected that a Grade 1 road was constructed using crushed boulders and red soil (murum) but within one monsoon, the sharp, harsh boulder chips remained in the name of a painful and excruciating journey on the remnants of Grade 1 road. Some social workers of the two villages which are incidentally just on the outskirts of Jamshedpur, have put two and two together to lay red soil on certain portions of the boulder stones to make life somewhat easier. But the pain factor continues to remain in every footstep of Narga and Barardih villagers.

Some active youth members of the twin villages including Kadakar Gaur, Usha Singh, Sumitra Singh, Som Patro, Kalipado Giri, Dilip Das, Raju Patro, Julu Baskey and others stated, “The bad road conditions cause mishaps daily causing injuries to the villagers some of which are grave. It is cumbersome for children to go to school or carry the sick for medical examinations. During monsoons, the condition of this road is scary as it is difficult to even walk on it. We are naturally agitated at this 16 year long oversight of people whom we have trusted.”

Talking to another set of elders and middle aged villagers, one learnt that legislators, parliamentarians, Parishad members and of course government officials have been told their tales of a single woe but they continue to bear with a path that even angels fear to tread. Several rounds of government offices have led to zero results. None is there to care for their genuine need. They are not asking for heaven on earth but only a good road to help villagers commute painlessly to the main road. As one villager whose hair has changed from jet black to red through 16 years said with unseeing eyes, “We do not know how much longer this 16-year wait will continue.”