Saidul Islam Abir, Raiganj:

Villagers have voluntarily lent their hands to renovate a damaged road in Jamtail village of Raiganj upazila in Sirajganj district with their own funds to keep it appropriate for movements.

Locals said, several hundreds of villagers had been suffering a lot as the road became impassable due to the incessant rains of the last few months. To alleviate this suffering, the villagers have started repairing work with their own initiative without waiting for government interference.

Jamtail village is located at the last end of Dhamainagar union in the upazila. More than a thousand people live in the village. There is a government primary school and several other important installations in the village. But, the village has been deprived of development for a long time due to lack of political will.

There is not even an inch of paved road in this village. Being the last village in the upazila, the villagers have been deprived of the facilities of communication system year on year. An earthen road was built many years ago to connect Dhamainagar with the Raiganj upazila headquarters’ Pacca (paved) road. But now, the road has turned into a thorn in throat. Even after a little rain, it becomes unfit and full of mud.

Meanwhile, the condition of the road inside the village is even more complicated. The suffering of the people becomes extreme when it rains. The villagers face immense suffering to take their cattle to the field and critical patient to hospital. Especially the children and students suffer extremely while go to schools.

The villagers complained that, despite several appeals to the public representatives and the upazila administration, no effective steps were taken to alleviate their sufferings. So, the villagers have finally started the road renovation work with their own efforts.

Rashedul Hasan, a resident of Jamtail village, said, “We have been deprived of communication facilities for a long time. No work was done on this road in the previous government regime. As a result, we have to face extreme suffering during the monsoon season.

During a spot visit, this correspondent found that, the villagers, including rickshaw drivers Md. Ayub Ali, Abdul Mannan Mujibor Uddin, Sorhab Ali, Yusuf Ali, Shahadat Hossain, Mofazzal Hossain were renovating the road with their own initiatives.

The conscious people of the community say that the work done by the villagers is commendable. We applaud them.