Potholes are an everyday occurrence on Indian roads - big or small in most cities and villages. In big cities, when one finds such stretches of road travelers take an alternative route but what if there are no alternative routes?
For 11,000 inhabitants of a village called Nagrakata in West Bengal, this is their only road - they depend on this 'road' for travel, access to education, health, business and daily commute. They have to traverse this road twice a day, every day, to get to work. For children to go to school. For produce to reach the market. The journey up and down obviously takes much longer than it normally would.
This road was laid down 8 years ago. And deteriorated steadily till it is now virtually impassable. Some of the potholes are so big a small Maruti car or a Nano would fall right in. Accidents happen almost every day. Even to pedestrians, who trip and sometimes hurt themselves badly. And then can’t rush to hospital for treatment as they still have to crawl their way to reach it.
Representations have been made to the Block Development Officer, who has promised to ‘look into it’. Maybe with the state elections imminent, there will be some action soon. But will it be the usual hasty filling up of the worst stretches which will get washed out as soon as the heavy rains start?
Or will the villagers of Nagrakata finally get a good road that will last for a long time and make their lives a little easier to cope with?
The community demands a proper road be built at the soonest possible. Help the people of Nagrakata by calling/ or messaging the region's Block Development officer, Tutan Lepcha on +91-3565272744
COMMUNITY CORRESPONDENT SUJIT SINGH REPORTS FROM WEST BENGAL FOR VIDEO VOLUNTEERS.
Community Correspondents come from marginalised communities in India and produce videos on unreported stories. These stories are ’news by those who live it. ’ They give the hyperlocal context to global human rights and development challenges. See more such videos at www.videovolunteers.org.
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