SYSTEM ON COT

15-JUNE-ENG 8

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

ARA---------------------------Dhamwal village under Bahoranpur Panchayat of Shahpur Assembly constituency located in Bhojpur district of Bihar is still living in the era where road is just a dream and reaching the hospital is a compulsion to carry the patient on a cot. This is the same country which talks about “Digital India” and “Chandrayaan”, but in ground reality some villages are still living on the British era footpaths, dependent on their fate.

A recent incident in Dhamwal village shook the entire district. The villagers had to take the help of a cot to take a sick patient to the hospital, because there is no paved or unpaved road to reach the village. The distance of the village from the road is just half a kilometer, but this distance seems like a mountain when a woman is in labor pain or an elderly person needs emergency treatment.

A youth from the village said that his grandfather is 90 years old, but till date he has not seen a road in his village. “We are 25-26 years old, but we have not seen a paved road till date,” – this sentence is not just disappointment, but a deep taunt on the system. Three generations of Dhamwal village are still dependent on footpaths.

Villagers said that the government and district administration were asked several times for road construction, but every time they got only assurances. Neither any concrete action was taken, nor any plan could be implemented. The media also raised this issue repeatedly, but the administration has not woken up till now.

According to the villagers, leaders keep coming and going during the election season, but after winning they forget this village. “In every election there is a promise of a road, then it is the same old story,” – the villagers' words clearly reflect their anger and broken trust.

Some time ago, the residents of the village had also protested with the slogan “No road, no vote”. However, these movements also did not have any lasting effect. The local administration again assured the villagers by talking about technical difficulties of NOC (No Objection Certificate), but now there is no trust left in these empty promises.

Vehicles cannot reach Dhamwal village. In such a situation, daily needs – like bringing ration, going to school, taking a sick person to the hospital – everything becomes a struggle. It is common to carry pregnant women on cots to the hospital, which puts a question mark on all the development schemes.

Prominent people of the village - Akshay Paswan, Dev Lok Ram, Naulak Paswan, Ratan Paswan, Sanjay Paswan, Lal Ji Ram, Chhotak Ram, Veerda Paswan, Daroga Paswan, Dhanji Ram, Lalu Tiwari, Raju Tiwari, Rajnikant Tiwari, Jaiprakash Tiwari, Nirmal Tiwari, Ashok Dubey, Umashankar Tiwari, Surendra Singh, Jaglal Singh, Mantu Yadav, Matur Tiwari, Vijay Shankar Tiwari, Akshay Yadav, Sunil Yadav etc. held a meeting and decided that now the fight will take a fierce form.

The villagers have also planned to meet Bhojpur DM Tanya Sultania and the concerned officials soon, so that the message goes out that now they will not sit silent.

Will Dhamwal ever come in the mainstream of development? When the country makes claims of development, then the question arises whether there is any place for a village like Dhamwal in these claims? Are the pictures of the patient being carried on a cot not a matter of shame for our system?

Dhamwal is still waiting – for a road, for the fulfillment of a promise, and for the day when a leader will deliver and not just make promises.