Villagers suffer as a road in awful condition for years

Around 20 thousand people of three villages in Sadar upazila of Meherpur suffer for this badly damaged road. The photo was taken a few days ago.Photo: STAR

"They turned down my daughter's marriage proposal a few months ago, saying how they will travel to the village during the rainy season,” said Amej Ali, a resident of Baribaka village in Meherpur Sadar upazila.
Around 20 thousand people living in Baribaka and adjoining Shalika, Buripota and Nabinagar villages in Sadar upazila are suffering for years due to awful condition of the three-kilometre road linking Meherpur-Kushtia-Chuadanga Highway as well as district and upazila headquarters.
People of the agriculture-dependent villages, some 20 kilometres off the Meherpur district headquarters, face untold problems while bringing harvested crops from their fields, sending children to school, bringing things to and from the markets, taking patients to hospitals, etc.
In the rainy season, the villages becomes virtually isolated.
The villages are rich in agriculture products, especially rice and fish, but they have remained very backward due to lack of communication facilities, locals said.
Due to communication problem, the villages were not brought under electrification programme and so, local farmers use around 500 diesel-run shallow and deep tube-wells to irrigate their paddy fields, adding to the production cost.
“The kids have to face untold sufferings to go to schools during the rainy season,” said Firoz Kamal, teacher of a local primary school.
Nazrul Islam, a farmer of Nabinagar village, said nobody took initiative to repair the road although aspirants in the elections promised to construct the road before the polls during the last several years.
As this correspondent talked to Abdur Rouf Mukul, chairman of Buripota Union Parishad, he said, "On several occasions I went to the officials of Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and requested them to take initiative to repair the road but they gave only promise."
Jan-e-Alam, Meherpur Sadar upazila engineer of LGED, said his department wrote to the higher authorities in this regard and steps will be taken after allocation of money.