Muddy road causes suffering for locals
Absence of a paved road under Magchami union in Faridpur’s Madhukhali upazila is hampering communications between seven villages, upazila headquarters and the district town.
The two-kilometre-long road, that passes through the villages and ends at Baliakandi-Madhukhali road, becomes very muddy and unusable in the rainy season and no vehicles can ply over it, locals claimed.
While visiting the area recently, this correspondent found the portion of the road from Mridha Bazar to Choita Bhimnagar muddy and waterlogged from recent rain.
Residents of three villages under Madhukhali upazila in Faridpur and four villages under Baliakandi upazila in Rajbari use the road every day to go to schools, colleges, village markets and upazila and district headquarters as there is no other alternative road, locals said.
Four educational institutions are located on both sides of the road and students of these institutions are facing difficulty coming to school by walking through the muddy path, locals claimed.
A resident of Khapara village under Madhukhali upazila Bakkar Mia said, “If it rains one day, the road remains unusable till the water dries off. During rainy season the suffering is beyond description. The road becomes almost unfit for even walking.”
Another resident of the village farmer Dablu Mollah said, “A large number of farmers carrying agro-products face trouble while crossing the road.”
Dablu has to carry his agro-products on his back from his home to the local market Mridha Bazar, one kilometre away, because no vehicles want to cross the road.
“Sometimes I have to make more than one trip to take my goods to Mridha Bazar,” he said, demanding a paved road.”
A teacher of Magchami Government Primary School Mohammad Selim said, “Since vehicles cannot ply on the road during the rainy season, our student number is dwindling.”
Student of Jamalpur Degree College Purnima Biswas has to walk the two-km muddy road from her home in Baliakandi upazila’s Kashkandi village to the regional highway to find a transport.
She said, “We are suffering the most as we have to use the road daily to go to college and tuition twice a day.”
Chairman of Magchami Union Parishad Md Hasan Ali Khan said, “Seeing locals’ suffering, this year in January I applied to the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), chairman of upazila parishad and upazila relief and rehabilitation officer but no steps have been taken yet.”
LGED Madhukhali Upazila Engineer Rofiqul Islam said, “We have enlisted the road in a plan. If the plan gets approved, we will build the road.”