Frustrated with delay, villagers in Jharkhand's Khunti pitch in for diversion beside collapsed Pelol bridge

RANCHI: Disappointed with Jharkhand governments indifference towards their sufferings over the damaged Pelol bridge, the distressed villagers finally built a temporary diversion over the Banai River themselves. It is built at the Khunti-Torpa-Kolebira road in Khunti through Shram Daan (labour donation) on Monday. It stretches for nearly 200 metres and is about five metres wide. According to villagers, Rs 10,000 was collected through contributions from villagers. Stone chips, cement bags and sand were arranged to build the diversion from Shram Daan. Notably, this is the bridge that had forced the local children into a perilous daily routine, scaling a 25-foot bamboo ladder to reach their school after the bridge collapsed 80 days ago. Later, when the photo of children scaling the ladder went viral, the administration came in and stopped them from doing so, assuring them that an alternate arrangement will be made very soon. But even after two months, not even a diversion was built. Recently, in a creative yet touching display of frustration, people of Pelol village marked the two-month anniversary of the bridge collapse on August 19 by cutting a cake on the broken bridge. This unusual form of protest was chosen due to fears of potential repercussions from the State government if they were to take to the streets in a more traditional form of protest. About 150 to 200 villagers gathered and built the diversion, making way for the bikes to pass through it on Monday. Let the government build the bridge; we will build the diversion on our own, said the villagers. Collapsed bridge in Jharkhand's Khunti forces students to scale 25-foot bamboo ladder to reach school Jharkhand's Khunti villagers stage unique protest over bridge collapse; cut cake on collapsed bridge According to villagers, after the collapse of the bridge on June 19, the diversion between Pelaul and Hesel villages also broke, but neither was repaired. It made a bad impact on employment; children are deprived of going to school, and the development of the area has come to a standstill, they said. Gram Pradhan Shivshankar Tidu said that in the next few days, more than a thousand villagers from the adjoining villages will gather and improve the diversion by Shram Daan by using JCB and Poklane machines as well, a villager said. The decision was taken as the villagers were frustrated at the repeated assurances given by Khunti MLA Ram Surya Munda and the district administration. Be it school-going children, pregnant women, farmers or traders everyone was facing problems due to the collapsed bridge and lack of a diversion, said Tiru. The district administration, however, informed that the process of the construction of the diversion and repair of the collapsed bridge has been initiated and is to be done by the Road Construction Department. The tender work has been completed, and the work order has also been issued not only for the repair of the bridge but also for the construction of the diversion road, they said. Khunti Deputy Commissioner R Ronita has also assured to look into the matter so that the construction work could be expedited.