Villagers carry 80-year-old woman's body six kilometres after monsoon-damaged road remains closed

Villagers in Himachal Pradesh's Sirmaur district had to carry the body of an 80-year-old woman on their shoulders for nearly six kilometres to reach her village, after a road damaged during the monsoon remained closed.

Parma Devi, a resident of Tina Gularwala village in Dhageda panchayat of Nahan subdivision's Dharti Dhar area, died while undergoing treatment at PGI Chandigarh on Sunday, October 5. Her body was brought by vehicle from Chandigarh to the main road connecting Dharti Dhar and Rama Dhageda. With the road ahead to Tina Gularwala closed, villagers tied the body to a pole and carried it on their shoulders for about six kilometres over a rough, uneven route to reach the village, before taking it to the local cremation ground for the last rites.

Villagers told PTI on Tuesday that the road has remained closed since the onset of the monsoon. This year, the monsoon arrived in Himachal Pradesh on June 30 and withdrew on October 3.

According to residents, the roughly eight-kilometre Tina Gularwala road was constructed in 2014 and inaugurated by then-Nahan MLA Rajiv Bindal. It connects Tina Gularwala, along with Bendli, Roz Katli and over half a dozen other surrounding villages, to the Rama-Dhageda main road. Further ahead, the route crosses the Jalmoosa river and links up with the Paonta Sahib-Kala Amb National Highway near Katasan Temple, close to Kolar village.

Virendra Singh Thakur, a Block Development Council (BDC) member from the area, said the road closure was affecting daily life, not just emergencies. "The consequences of the road closure are being suffered not only after death, but also in everyday life. Taking the sick to the hospital on time has become a difficult task and farmers' crops are being ruined in the fields because they cannot be transported to the markets," he said. Thakur added that farmers, students and other villagers were facing severe hardship, and that the road currently falls under panchayat jurisdiction. "Every year, the Public Works Department restores the closed road, but this time the road remains closed," he said.

Villagers Rohit, Anil, Ramendra, Surendra and Pinku Singh told PTI that the 2014 road construction had given the area road connectivity and transport access for the first time since Independence. But with the road shut since the monsoon, residents have been forced to walk several kilometres to reach markets, hospitals, schools, colleges, and the tehsil and district headquarters. They have demanded the road be restored at the earliest.

Local panchayat pradhan Narendra acknowledged the road was damaged by the monsoon and said the Public Works Department had already been informed, expressing hope that it would be restored soon.