New Delhi:
They waited, waited, waited and then decided not to wait anymore. A group of villagers in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur district, tired of waiting for local representatives to fulfill their promises to get a bridge built, have taken matters into their own hands.
An 108-ft bridge, paid for by the villagers, is now coming up on the Magai river. The villagers have been pooling money to arrange the required funds of nearly Rs 1 crore. They said they have repeatedly raised their demand for the bridge, but have only received promises. The foundation stone for the bridge was laid in February last year and work is now in full swing. Administrative questions, however, remain. The bridge is being constructed without the administration’s permission and in that case, a big question is how accountability would be fixed if there is an accident later.
Local resident Rajesh Singh Yadav, who has worked with the village headman, said the bridge’s construction is halfway done. “From Independence to now, every elected representative has only cheated the people. That’s why this bridge was not built. People vote and realise later that the representative is doing nothing for them. People from at least 50 villages will benefit from this bridge. If this bridge is built, the distance to the district headquarters will be reduced by 25 km,” he said.
Anil Yadav, another resident, said the absence of the bridge has hit the villagers’ education. He said there is no degree college in the area and one must move to Ghazipur for higher education because the travel time is too long. “If we stay there, we have to rent a room. We are farmers, where is the money? Students get late for school when the river is flooded. They have to wait for boats,” he said. Asked when they expect the bridge to be completed, he replied, “We cannot say for sure. Because work depends on the money we can collect.”
Local residents said a former Armyman from the area led the initiative to build the bridge. Ravindra Yadav, who retired from the Army’s Corps of Engineers, donated Rs 10 lakh for the bridge construction. “He donated Rs 10 lakh. The foundation stone was laid in the presence of Allahabad High Court judge Shekhar Kumar Yadav. Gradually, a message went out to the people, and they joined the cause. Once this bridge is built, we can easily access hospitals, schools and colleges in Ghazipur,” Ramkriti Yadav, who led the panchayat earlier. He said the Army veteran had worked on such projects earlier and was overseeing the construction.
The Mohammabad Assembly constituency, currently represented by Samajwadi Party’s Suhaib Ansari, has oscillated between two families for the past four decades — the Rais and the Ansaris. The segment has also seen a bloody political history. From 1985 to 2001, the seat was represented by Afzal Ansari, the brother of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari. In the 2002 polls, BJP’s Krishnanand Rai was elected MLA from the Ansari stronghold. Four years later, Rai was murdered on the orders of Mukhtar Ansari. In the election that followed, his wife, Alka Rai, was elected MLA. Alka Rai won the seat in 2017 too, but lost it in 2022.
Interestingly, the ancestral village of Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor and BJP veteran Manoj Sinha is also located in this area.
District collector Aryaka Akhauri said the administration came to know about the bridge from media reports. “This is a matter of public safety and heavy vehicles will use it. So we will get it checked to ensure the quality of construction so that no accident takes place,” she said.
Inputs by Sunil Singh