Karatigram-Madhuramukh bridge built spending 4 crores of taxpayers' money decaying since 7 years without approach
Despite being situated in the vicinity of the city of Silchar, the Dudhpatil area hasn’t seen much development merely due to the lack of a bridge. The three other sides of the city have progressed over the years but this side of the city which is under the Borkhola constituency, Dudhpatil is rather known as an underdeveloped village till today. In 2008, the then state government finalised a project to build a bridge at the mouth of the Madhura river via Karatigram in Rongpur. The state government had allocated 4 crores 13 lakhs rupees for the project.
Later the work of the bridge was completed and was constructed after spending 4 crores 11 lakhs rupees. Whereas even after 7 years of completion of the project, it has not amounted to anything yet. If the bridge gets functional, at least ten revenue villages, including Dudhpatil, will get connected to the city, directly benefiting at least 30,000 people.
In 2016, local BJP candidates promised to build a bridge approach but failed to keep their promises in the subsequent years. The bridge would have been completed by now if the road work had been completed in the pathway of 200 meters towards Silchar and 450 meters towards Dudhpatil that connect the bridge from either side. Last year, a team led by former Deputy Commissioner Barnali Sarma visited the area and assured that work on the approach would begin, but for some unknown reason, it too got ruined.
On Tuesday, a social organization based in Chhotodudhpatil, Manab Kalyan Sangha, sent a memorandum to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Highlighting the details of the bridge, they appealed to take the necessary steps to build the approach this year. They also handed over a copy of the memorandum to the local MLA, a high-ranking official of the Public Works Department (PWD) and the BJP’s district committee.
On behalf of the social organization, a team led by Tanmoy Purkayastha first met Udharbond MLA Mihir Kanti Shome on Tuesday. He gave him detailed information about the progress of the work in the last few years. Mihir Kanti Shome assured them, “Since the bridge is shared between two constituencies, hence they all have to work together to build the approach at the earliest. There have been several attempts to move the work forward in the last five years. But many have refused to give land for the construction of the approach, that’s why it’s still left incomplete. But this time we will appeal to the government in a new way to make the bridge functional for the public. We believe the work will be done this time.”
Tanmoy Purkayastha said, “People from about 10 villages will directly benefit from this bridge. 30,000 people live in this area who have to travel frequently to reach the city for various purposes. There are three ghats through the Malugram area, on average 10,000 people cross the river by boat every month to go to the city. During the rainy season, the river gets completely flooded and there have been many accidents in the past due to this very reason. We want the bridge to get functional using people’s hard-earned money so that just for the incomplete work of approach, the whole project doesn’t go to waste.”
When the work on the bridge was completed, Rumi Nath was the MLA of Borkhola then. After two pillars were erected, the work got stopped due to unknown reasons. RTI was filed on behalf of the social organization to find out the reason for the halt of work. By then, the MLA was in jail due to one case. Later the bridgework got completed, but the then government did not take any special steps regarding the completion of the approach. In 2016, the BJP government came to power and Kishore Nath became the MLA. Locals have alleged that he had always neglected the Dudhpatil area. The bridge over the river Barak, which could have connected Dudhpatil to the city through Malugram, went to Annapurna Ghat instead due to the efforts of the MLA. Although no special work was done except for the installation of only two pillars. This time under the new government, the people of the area have started dreaming anew.
Before the election, Congress candidate Misbahul Islam Laskar claimed that it is important for him to build the Karatigram-Madhuramukh bridge approach. He said that the bridge was completed during their tenure. However, due to the failure of former MLA Rumi Nath, the approach could not be developed. Later, the BJP government did not do anything to help the case either. But this time he will make a repeated appeal to the government and will be headstrong to complete the work responsibly.
On Monday, the village delegation met with others, including the district BJP President. They said that although the BJP candidate had lost by a narrow margin, people in the larger Dudhpatil area voted for the BJP candidate in large numbers. And now as the government is of BJP, then there’s no reason for their supporters to get neglected anymore.
They further pointed out that in the area under Borkhola where the bridge through the Annapurna ghat over the Barak river gets connected, the BJP candidate in this year’s election managed to harbour only 45 votes in that area’s polling centre. Whereas in the same centre, the Congress candidate got more than a thousand votes.
Comments are closed.