Junagarh: After waiting for several years to get them a sanctioned road, the residents of inaccessible Lakhanpada village under this block in Kalahandi district have built their road all by themselves contributing money and labour.
Much like Dashrath Manjhi, the famous mountain man of Gehlaur village, near Gaya in Bihar; villagers of Lakhanpada village are cutting through their mountain of dejections and administration apathy and building their own 3 kilometer hilly commutable stretch.
With only one-and-a-half kilometers of the total stretch left, they are eagerly waiting for a safe and relaxed journey upon completion.
Lakhanpada village is 23 km away from Junagarh block office and 8 km from Budidar panchayat.
The village has a population of more than 300 citizens. The villagers live mainly on Podu cultivation. There are no road facilities available to them. What they have is only a hilly terrain surplus with big boulders and gravel making their communication all but difficult.
In case of transporting patients or pregnant women, the problem increases manifold. They carry the patients in cots or slings covering a distance of 5 km up to Shankarpala village from where an ambulance or a hired vehicle takes them to Junagarh Community Health Center. There have been incidents where some patients even breathed their last mid way.
Getting PDS commodities and pension from Budidar panchayat office is no less difficult. They cover 8 km on to reach the panchayat office.
They had been pleading with the administration and the political leaders for steps to lessen their communication problem. And in turn they got nothing but lip services.
They used the administration and political leaders’ apathy to their advantage. The villagers united and constructed the road to their village by cutting through the hill on their own.
Starting from children to male and female everyone is pitching in for the construction work. They are working on the road three days a week – Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
By now they have already constructed the 1.5 km long stretch from Dainiguda through the hill. They are now busy in constructing the rest 1.5 km up to their village Lakhanpada.
Getting the road construction done manually gets them exhausted. However, at the day end they forget their fatigue when they see their road being constructed.
On being informed, our correspondent trekked the hilly terrain to reach at the village. He was astonished to see the commendable job the villagers have done so far.
During interaction with the villagers the administration and the political leaders were solely held responsible for their wretched living condition.
Expressing their happiness over the village road being on the verge of completion, they said, “We are happy for we are constructing our own road without taking any help from others. We are working under the guidance of local ward member Jatichandra Majhi and some senior residents like Bada Majhi, Mania Majhi and Budha Majhi.”
PNN
