2 Nurpur villages lack road connectivity

Rajiv Mahajan

Nurpur, August 23

Two villages — Janoon in Kherian gram panchayat and Damoh in Minjgrah panchayat in Nurpur – are yet to see the light of development. Residents of these villages are a harried lot as the area is without road connectivity. A kuchcha path of 7 km connects these villages to Darad-Nullah. Moreover, taking this path during the rainy season is no less than a nightmare.

Sources said the Janoon village has maximum Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) population whereas Damoh village has a sizeable population of Gujjars. The residents of these villages have been struggling for the past over a decade to get a metalled road but all assurances and promises have remained just on paper. Barring the BJP governments, the successive regimes have failed to pay any heed towards the grievances of the villagers. The Central Government has allocated funds to the tune of crores of rupees under the SC/ST component plan for the welfare of these categories, but the successive state governments have failed to spend any money here to provide road connectivity to these villages, residents alleged.

During the rainy season, the hardships of the residents increase manifold. They have to carry patients on beds to reach the pucca road at Darad-Nullah for shifting them to hospitals.

Kuldeep Kumar, an elected ward member from Janoon, said following the persistent demand of the locals, the then MLA, Rakesh Pathania, in the Dhumal government had put the construction of this road on his priority list during 2008-09. But even after a decade, the work on the road has not even started. Inquiries revealed that the previous Virbhadra Singh government had prepared a detailed project report (DPR) of Rs 782.21 lakh for the construction of the 7.3-km road with two bridges in 2017 and the same was submitted to NABARD for financial approval on April 25, 2017, by the adviser (Planning). The DPR was prepared after some residents of Janoon village procured a no objection certificate (NOC)-cum- clearance from the Union Forest and Environment Department with their own efforts in 2015 as the proposed road would come up in the forest area and clearance was mandatory to start any construction.

Local residents Amar Singh, Kartar Chand, Nek Ram, Gian Chand and Nikka Ram have appealed to the local MLA Rakesh Pathania, and Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur to start work on the much-awaited road immediately after the monsoon.

The MLA, meanwhile, said a new DPR with the requisite amendments had been submitted to NABARD for a financial nod and he hoped that the approval would come in a month. “The construction of this road tops my priority list. It was delayed due to some technical and legal problem in forest clearance during the Dhumal government regime.” He alleged that no efforts were undertaken to build this road during the previous Congress governments.