Villagers repair 2-km road thru' self-help

Taking spades and other tools from their homes, several hundred villagers of Boaldar union under Hakimpur upazila of the district joined hands for making a road suitable for vehicular movement as it turned from bad to worse with the beginning of the rainy season this year.

The 2-km long mud road from Chemgram to Bishapara connected at least 10,000 people of Chengram village to Hakimpur upazila headquarters.

During a visit there on Saturday, this correspondent found several hundred people equipped with spades working hard to repair the road. They started repair works on Friday, the villagers said.

The villagers questioned the recent earth filling work spending Tk 14.59 lakhs. With so much money, the road can be paved with bricks, they added.

The local government authority of Hakimpur upazila spent the money for repairing the mud road a month ago under a project titled 'building rural infrastructure'. 

"We saw a few people repairing the road for a few days in early June, but it did not work as rain washed away the newly filled earth on the road," alleged Rafiqul Islam of Chengram.

As the villagers failed to get any help from Boaldar Union Parishad, they took up the responsibility to repair the road. Several hundred villagers, including teachers, students, rickshaw and van pullers, joined hands and repaired it within two days, he added.

Asaduzzaman, a teacher of Jamalpur High School and resident of Chengram village, said the road is their only way to go to Hakimpur headquarters and some places in Birampur upazila. "People of our village suffer almost every year during the rainy season," he added.

Earth filling work was done on the road a month ago, but it turned worse, he said. "There was knee deep mud on the road," alleged the teacher.

The teacher questioned if Tk 14.59 lakh for repairing the road was properly utilised.

Rickshaw and van pullers were also affected as they could not ply their vehicles due to the knee deep mud on the road. Farmers face difficulties to take their produce to the market, farmer Zinnat Ali said.

Mokarram Hossain, a 3rd year student of Hakimpur Degree College, said that he has to walk to his college every day as he cannot ride his bicycle on the mud road.

"A brick road could be built if the fund was properly used," he added, saying that the local lawmaker Shibli Sadique recently visited the spot.

Sajibul Karim, project implementation officer of Hakimpur upazila, claimed that there was no corruption in repairing the road. The repairing works is yet to be finished. They suspended the work for rain, he added.