Two years on, Noida’s ‘Kushti’ village waits for roads, sports infra and drainage

Noida: Known for producing award-winning wrestlers and athletes, Sorkha village, near Sector 115, has been waiting for concrete roads, parks, improved sports facilities and a functional drainage system for over two years.

A group of villagers met Noida Authority officials on Monday to press for the long-pending infrastructure work.Wrestlers from Sorkha rose to prominence between 2001 and 2014 when dozens from the village went on to play at the national-level championship. Over the years, however, its popularity dwindled due to a lack of opportunities and investments. A resident of the village, Indrajit Pehelwan, said, “Improvement of infrastructure is a right of the 20,000 people living here.

We have been ignored for the past two decades.”The villagers are demanding that the main road and the internal lanes are paved with concrete. “We also need water and sewer lines. Due to a lack of proper drainage, these roads get flooded during the monsoon,” another resident, Ravi Yadav, said.

The sports infrastructure in the village has also been crumbling. The Authority earmarked a 5-acre plot on the Hindon floodplain nearly a decade ago, but did not construct a boundary wall around it.

Then the land mafia moved in. A barbed fence installed around it slowly vanished. Villagers now use the remnants of the fence to hang clothes and use the plot to dry cow dung cakes.Residents claim that the horticulture department has failed to provide a functional sports ground. Despite tenders being floated two years ago, the lack of progress on the issue has rendered the existing ground into a vacant plot, which is often overrun by stray animals.

“We have stressed the need for a boundary wall around the sports ground and a modern hall with a mat-covered floor at the the akhada to protect the training facilities for our wrestlers,” Yadav said.Parvinder Yadav, another resident of the village, said if no tangible progress is made soon, they would escalate the matter to the Noida Authority CEO.

Senior manager of the Authority Satendra Giri has assured a review of the pending works and has asked contractors to expedite the process.