BHOPAL: Situated 67 km away from Bhopal, Dhamanda village in Madhya Pradesh’s Sehore district holds the distinction of having more than 20 of its sons in the Indian Army.
Despite that, the village has failed to get a proper road to connect with the Bhopal-Indore highway. One of its brave sons, the 32-year-old Jitender Kumar, was among the 13 who died in the helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday.
“He (Jitender) was my grand son and his father my nephew. He returned to join duty on November 9 through a potholed road. His mortal remains will return to the village on Friday or Saturday. And hopefully, through a proper or at least patch-worked road,” Dhamanda village sarpanch Laxmi Chand told this daily.
The village, which is around 2.5 km from the highway, has been witnessing since Thursday hurried visits by government teams to ensure that a proper stretch is available to bring back the remains of the village’s braveheart son.
“There are dumpers and JCB machines engaged in placing road stones and soil and levelling the mixture to ensure a proper road before our son’s mortal remains return from Delhi. We’ve heard that CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan is also coming to pay homage. Perhaps this has accelerated the work to put the rickety road back in shape,” the sarpanch added.
Dhamanda village is part of Sehore — the CM’s home district — but still a proper road has remained a distant dream. “The last time a proper road was built was around 8-10 years back. That road has been in a woeful state since two years. People prefer not travelling on vehicles at night fearing accidents on this stretch,” the sarpanch maintained. Dhamanda residents have raised the point with government officials on several occasions. “We’ve raised the issue with BJP MLA Karan Singh Verma on multiple occasions, but a proper road still eludes our village due to some reason or the other.”
Now with Jitender set to come home for one last time, the village hopes it will get what it did not when their favourite son was alive.