This Jamtara village rebuilt a bridge on its own after pleas went unheard

Dumka: Residents of a village in Jamtara district built a bridge, which was damaged in July in the incessant rain. The Dakshin Bahal bridge connects Karmatand in Jamtara with Deoghar.

Connecting Deoghar–Chitra–, the damaged Dakshinbahal bridge is situated on the Main Road passing through Dakshinbahal village.

Locals claim that they had repeatedly appealed to the authorities concerned, but no action was taken by anyone to repair the bridge or provide an alternative route to the villagers.However, the lack of an alternative caused immense hardship for local residents, forcing them to take a 15 km detour as the damaged bridge severely affected access to schools, hospitals, and marketplaces.

"The damage to the bridge caused by incessant rain caused much inconvenience to the residents of over half a dozen villages who had to take a detour of 15km to reach the district headquarters," said one Manoj Kanti Mandal adding that schoolchildren were the most victim for failing to attend the classes.

Frustrated with the inaction of authorities and local MLA and Jharkhand minister, Irfan Ansar,i they approached for the purpose, the villagers pooled their own resources and constructed a diversion road themselves.

"We received only assurances with no tangible solution", he stated."We utilised the fund donated by the people for the local temple of Goddess Kali for starting the construction of a diversion, which could be completed after generating funds from the donations made by the common villagers as well," said another villager, hoping that the bridge would last until the Dakshin Bahal bridge is repaired by the administration. Speaking to the TOI, deputy commissioner Ravi Anand said that the executive engineer of the road construction department was directed to expedite the process for repairing the Dakshin Bahal bridge.