BHADRAK: A day after video of children repairing a damaged road in Bhadrak’s Bagamara went viral on social media raising posers on administrative apathy, block officials visited the village to take stock of the situation on Thursday.
Led by block development officer Manoj Kumar Behera, the team assessed the road for repair works and assured needful action. In the viral video, at least five to six tribal children of Bagamara village in Gektua panchayat were seen packing stones in bags and carrying it on a cycle to fill the potholes and level the road. Onlookers who captured the video said the children, all aged between 8-9 years, spent around one and a half hours repairing the road. Asked about why they took it upon themselves to repair the road, the kids said,”We could see people have trouble communicating on the road. Since no one was coming to fix the potholes, we went ahead and did it.”
Sources said, a 2-km stretch of the village road which has been in bad condition for years is the only one to connect it to district headquarters town. Pothole-ridden, the road males it difficult for ambulances to reach during emergencies. While villagers have been demanding a pucca road for years now, the district administration has reportedly paid little heed.
The video also belied tall claims of the government to facilitate road connectivity through Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and MGNREGS. BDO MK Behera who recently took charge, admitted that the road repair was a long-standing demand of the villagers as was shared by the sarpanch Saroj Kumar Das. Preliminary inquiry report revealed that a contractor had taken a tender for the road construction but left the work mid-way. The assistant executive engineer has been asked to conduct a spot inquiry and submit a report, he said, adding that the road will be repaired on priority basis.