CHANDIGARH: Villagers in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh carried the body of an 80-year-old woman on their shoulders for about six kilometres to reach her village after a road damaged during the monsoon remained closed for nearly three months.
Parma Devi, a resident of Gulrawala village in Dhageda panchayat in the Dhartidhar area of Nahan subdivision, died during treatment at PGI Chandigarh. Her family brought her body by vehicle from Chandigarh to the Rama-Dhageda main road. However, as the Tina-Gulrawala road remained closed, the vehicle could not reach the village.
Locals then tied the body to a pole and carried it on their shoulders for about six kilometres over a rough and uneven route to Gulrawala. The body was later taken to the village cremation ground for the last rites.
Her son, Ramender, was accompanied by BDC member and former panchayat pradhan Virender Singh Thakur, along with other villagers.
The locals said the road closure has forced residents to walk several kilometres to access markets, hospitals, schools, colleges, the tehsil and district headquarters. They demanded that the road be restored at the earliest.
The nearly 8-km-long Tina-Gulrawala road, built in 2014, connects Gulrawala, Bendli and other villages with the Rama-Dhageda main road and onward to the Paonta Sahib-Kala Amb National Highway. Locals said its prolonged closure has affected medical emergencies and the transportation of farm produce to markets.
Thakur said the impact of the closure was being felt in both emergencies and 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. Every year, the Public Works Department restores the closed road, but this time the road remains closed,” he said, adding that the road currently falls under the jurisdiction of the panchayat.
The monsoon arrived in Himachal Pradesh on June 30 this year and withdrew on October 3.