Dasrath Manjhi, rightly named as Mountain Man, of Gehlaur village in Gaya district impressed many during his lifetime and after death. Those who were highly impressed by the poor Mahadalit man included Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who vacated his chair for Manjhi in order to show his respect, actor Aamir Khan who visited his village and dedicated the first episode of his show Satyamev Jayate to him and film director Ketan Mehta made a biopic with Nawazuddin Siddiqui playing role of the Mountain Man.
The list is long. The new admirer of Manjhi is Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu who announced to conduct a survey for laying railway line up to Gehlaur and open a station there and name it after the legendary man who hand chiseled a path through a mountain after 22 years of hard work..
Prabhu at a programme organised by Akshar Sansar Foundation in New Delhi announced on Wednesday that he would speak to the railway officials for laying rail line up to Mountain Man’s village Gehalur. “Soon a survey will be conducted. The station at Gehlaur will be named after Baba Dasrath Manjhi,” the Railway Minister announced. When this news reached Gehlaur under Wazirganj block, the villagers jumped in excitement and gave credit for this to Baba.
East Central Railway (ECR) general manger DK Gayen said, “The ECR will soon initiate all procedures on this project. To take rail line up to Dasrath Manjhi’s village will be matter or pride for the railways.”
Expressing happiness over Prabhu’s promise, senior BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav congratulated the Railway Minister and hoped that the survey and other process would be completed soon and work be completed before Manjhi’s tenth death anniversary.
Manjhi, who died on August 17, 2007, was so poor that could not afford to buy a railway ticket and the TT the without ticket Manjhi to get down from a Delhi bound train. What Manjhi did was unthinkable. He decided to go to Delhi on foot and starting from Gaya he walked along the railway tracks and reached the national capital after months of trekking. He wanted to meet then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi but failed.
This was before he took up a hammer and chisel and started cutting the Gehlaur hillocks and aftr 22 years of hard work he shortened the distance between Atri and Wazirganj blocks from 55 km to 15 km by cutting a 360 feet long and 25 feet wide road through the hills.
Ketan Mehta’s biopic the Mountain Man, which was released in August last year, was a big hit in Bihar as the State Government waived the entertainment tax. A good part of the film had been shot in Gehlaur village itself.