Village with 12,000 people pitiably backward

This path from Ghiba village in Sharsha upazila to Benapole via Raghunathpur remains awfully muddy most of the year, making the area hardly accessible. Photo: STAR

About 12,000 people in remote Ghiba village in Sharsha upazila are living a sub-human life because of awful condition of the mud road that connects the village with Benapole land port.
The eight-kilometre mud road running through Raghunathpur village is the only means of communication between the Ghiba village in Bahadurpur union and the land port.
During rainy season, the villagers' misery gets worst as it goes under knee-deep water. They cannot reach the market, bazar and hospital in due time.
Students cannot come out of home while academic activities of the only school and a madrasa remain suspended in the rainy season. Teachers are unwilling to get posted there.
Most of the people of the village are poor who depend on cultivation of crops and vegetables. But they are not getting fair prices, as they cannot market it in due time for transportation problem. Buyers show very little interest in their goods for transportation problem.
People have to depend on quack doctors as it takes a long risky journey to reach hospital, said Ismail Hossain, a villager. Sometimes elderly people or pregnant women die while being carried to the town on shoulders, Ismail added.
"Before elections, candidates assure us of solution to the problem, if they are elected from the constituency. But after elections, they rarely come to the village to see the condition of the road," said Alamgir Hossain, another villager.
Despite repeated insistence to the authorities concerned to construct the road, there has not been any result, said Asaduzzaman Sagar, the union parishad chairman. They sent a letter to LGED last month demanding reconstruction of the road, Asaduzzaman added.
Sharsha upazila assistant engineer of Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED) Tariqul Islam said a proposal has already been sent to the LGED for building a metal road to link the village with the port.