The International Women’s Day was celebrated in a different way in Kaljikhal block under Pauri Garhwal district on Tuesday with a six kilometer stretch of motorable road from Ghandiyal to Saknibari, built by the villagers of Kungarhghati, being thrown open for the public use by a 85-year-old Sharda Devi.
The road was built through Sharmdan (Voluantary labour) under the banner of Kungarhghati Jan Sakti Motor Road Nirman Samti. It was an initiative taken by way of venting protest against the indifferent State Government. The work started on February 9 and was completed on March 7. Determined to complete the two kilometer road by the deadline, the women villagers were ready to pawn or even sell their jewlleries.
Notably, Ghandiyal to Deval stretch of motorable road was sanctioned way back in 2011. But things did not start as the working agency PWD provincial division kept dragging its feet. Asked about the delay, executive engineer PWD provincial division Nihal Singh told The Pioneer that the estimate of around Rs 4 crore had been sent to the government on November 4 2015 after the alignment work of the road was done. “But disputes came in the way,” he added. Undaunted, the villagers , particularly the women, took things up and sweated to have it completed. The villagers looked ecstatic with the road being inaugurated on the day celebrated across the world to mark the women empowerment.
Dinesh Rawat, president of the Kungarhghati Jan Sakti Motor Road Nirman Samti, said that the villagers of the Kungarhgghati have to trudge a long way with their aching feet to reach the main road. “We appealed to the authorities to do something to make things easy for us. But our appeals falling on deaf ears, we decided to take the work ourselves. The road was completed in 28 days. We are exulted rising up to the challenge,” he said.
While the former Zila Panchayat president Keshar Singh Negi gave Rs 51,000, Sunder Singh Chauhhan (Satpuli) gave Rs 11,000 and Chetra Panchayat member Ravindra Bisht Rs11,000 to the Samiti for the construction of the remaining part of the road.