Locals take it upon themselves to repair road

Residents of Gournagar and Binnabari villages under Pabna's Chatmohar upazila have initiated construction of one-kilometre rural road to connect Chhoy Ani Beel after their demand remained ignored by local authorities for long.

Chhoy Ani Beel is a prominent waterbody within the Chalan Beel wetland where multiple crops, including paddy, are cultivated across 500 hectares of land.

The earthen road has long been a cause of sufferings to local farmers as they face immense hassle to transport their crops after harvest using it.

On Saturday, residents of the two villages began the work to turn the earthen road to a brick road, which would in turn enable the farmers to bring their harvest from the waterbody conveniently.

Some villagers contributed by raising fund for bricks, sand and other raw materials for the road-making, while others came forward with manual labour for the initiative. They aim to complete the work before possible flooding during monsoon.

"Due to lack of adequate road connectivity with Chhoy Ani Beel, local farmers have long been suffering," said Mostadul Haque, a local resident.

"Villagers have long been demanding construction of a submersible road to connect to Chhoy Ani Beel, but the authorities concerned took no steps to this end. So the villagers came forward to construct the road as a self-initiative," said Md Abdur Rouf, a former union parishad member.

"We need to harvest our paddy but the incessant rain over the past few days left the earthen road in such a sorry state that no wheels can run on it, making it nearly impossible to transport our crop from the waterbody," Shahin Alom, a local farmer.

"As such, we are all working together to construct a brick road. Hopefully, the work will be completed within a week," he added.

Constructed, Musa Naser Chowdhury, upazila nirbahi officer of Chatmohar, said they have a plan for constructing a road in the area.

"Local villagers have long demanded for a submersible road there. I will visit the area soon with a technical team in this regard. After getting a report from experts we will submit a project proposal to this end," the UNO said.