After Gorakhpur and Sitapur, now villagers of Basti started their ‘Jal Satyagraha’ at Aiylaghat demanding a bridge over the Kuwan River.
Supported by Apna Dal and other social organisations, the villagers started the protest as the bridge whose construction started in November 2011 was stopped in June 2012 following objection by the Forest department.
Apna Dal’s district president Arvind Singh Patel said due to bureaucratic apathy the construction of bridge has not resumed despite many assurances coming from different quarters.
‘’Till the construction works starts, we will continue to stand in the water to register our protests,’’ he said. The proposed bridge would connect Bhanpur and Hariyya tehsils.
Earlier, in a similar Satyagraha in Gorakhpur last month, police had to lathi charge the protestors who were standing in the water for a bridge over Ghagra river for nine days.
The UP Government had to use force when the satyagrahis had threatened to take ‘jal samadhi’ if their demand to build a bridge over the river was not met immediately.
The State also witnessed ‘Jal Satyagraha’ agitation in Sitapur when people kept standing in waist-deep water in the Sharda River for several days to press their demands after the destruction caused by floods last year.
National secretary, Apna Dal, Anupriya Patel said that it was a long pending demand and villagers have given many representations to the Government and district officials to build the bridge. “The agitation will continue till their demands are met,” Patel told The Pioneer.