Rabindranath Biswas
Diglipur, April 16: The residents of Nishchintapur, Ward No. 09 that comes under Gram Panchayat Kalighat, Tehsil Diglipur, Dist. North & Middle Andaman have decided to boycott the upcoming Lok Sabha polls to register their protest against the lack of road infrastructure a bridge over the Kalighat creek in the region.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha Daily, the denizens of Nishchintapur said that they were settled under the colonization scheme in 1960 but they are still reportedly leading a hardscrabble life due to non-existence of roads, bridge, school, health service centres, veterinary centres and non-availability of transport facilities, telephone/mobile network, etc. Except electricity and drinking water facilities, no other services are provided in this village in a proper way, they lamented. There is no single pucca road in this village since 1960, the inhabitants of this remote area have to walk about 3.4 kms on the bumpy & muddy track through the natural reserve forest and then wading through mangrove to reach to market, hospital, school etc situated at Kalighat their only nearby town for availing other basic facilities, the residents rued. “There are a couple of brooks with no culvert to cross over; a footbridge (built with a piece of long log placing across it and bamboo support) is the adopted means of our transportation system. But the commuting becomes highly dangerous and risky for our children, elderly, CWSN (Divyang), sick and most importantly the pregnant women of our village are the most vulnerable” the women of the village bemoaned. In an emergency like venomous snake bite, crocodile attack etc these victims are carried in stretchers (made with cloth & bamboo). However, instances are there that, in the event of non-availability of four persons for carrying the victim in stretcher at night, many lost their lives in their village. Owing to non-existence of a bridge over the creek of Kalighat, many residents of their village lost their lives due to capsizing of dinghy, drowning and crocodile attack, the villagers claimed. The local administration built a 100 mtr long and 1.5 mtr width wooden footbridge over the Kalighat Creek and which proves to be a death trap in every rainy season, they said. Some time a part of this footbridge is washed away by floodwaters with heavy current and sometimes it gets damaged and becomes highly risky, they further said. Most importantly, the main problem is being confronted by their school going children. Since there is no road, culvert/bridge over creeks/springs, their school going children can’t go to school at Kalighat which is situated about 3.4 km away from their remote village. The RTE Rule is completely overlooked, a sizable number of students quit their school in the middle of academic session due to non-existence of road and bridge over Kalighat creek, they said. “Owing to non-existence of road and a bridge over the Kalighat creek, we the indigent farmer community of our village, have to practice age-old carrying-on-head method and transport our farm produce and other goods and which is the most tiring job; and this is the prime reason why because we have ultimately ceased to produce crops for marketing and this in turn has further pushed us to poor economic condition” said the farmer community of the village.
The fumed villagers said that the foremost and most prime requirement of their village is the immediate construction of a 3.4 km pucca road from Lal Maati (from the bank of the Kalighat Creek to Late Kedari Nath Halder house of Nishchintapur (5 family) with a RCC bridge over Kalighat Creek to bridge the gap between Kalighat and their backward and much neglected village Nishchintapur.
The residents of this village said that they had written a letter to the Honourable Prime Minister of India apprising him of their plight owing to non-existence of road and a bridge over the Kalighat creek a couple of months ago and prayed for their early solution; but no fruitful result yielded, they alleged. They further said that, they had also mentioned in the letter that, if their long cherished road with connecting bridge over Kalighat creek isn’t started before the upcoming Lok Sabha Election (2024), they would resort to boycott the election and their call for poll boycott still stands, as narrated by the villagers.
