JHARKHAND: His friends and relatives called him insane. Even his close family thought he had gone crazy. But Maqsood Ansari, 33, a resident of Noori Nagar, located adjacent to Bokaro Thermal Power Plant, was determined to go it alone to accomplish his mission. He has erected a 20-feet-high and 100-feet-wide check-dam on his own in four years with his single-minded endeavour and hard work.
The dam, which has been erected by him using soil and boulders collected from the nearby areas, making use of wooden logs available naturally, now caters to the water needs of 1,000 people living in the 70 households in the village. Not only Noori Nagar, people of Harijan Tola also come to the check-dam for their day to day requirements.
The check-dam, popularly called as ‘Maqsood Ganj’ has at least 6 six feet water throughout the year. Water conserved in the check-dam remains clean as water keeps on flowing through a small drain at its corner. Inspired by the film Manjhi – The Mountain Man released in 2015, based on the life of Dashrath Manjhi of Bihar, who carved a path 30 feet wide and 360 feet long through a 25 feet high hill on his own, using only a hammer and chisel, Ansari also decided to do something so that people could remember him even after his death.
According to Ansari, the idea came to his mind in August 2015 when he saw water flowing from the hillocks near his village going waste even as his hamlet was starved of it. Initially, Ansari discussed the idea with the village head, who laughed at him.But, he was determined to do something in his life, and hence one fine morning he told his wife Zubaida Khatoon that he is going to erect the check-dam for the people at ‘Kurmia-Maral’ and went out with a spade and mattock in his hand. “It was the month of October when I came here for the first time. Since I had no idea how to start, I sat here for more than an hour and trying to figure out where to start from. All of a sudden I stood up and started putting boulders and tried to stop the flowing water,” said Ansari.
Then, it became a daily affair and he stated going there regularly. “People laughed at me, my wife termed me insane, but I did not stop as I was determined to do something for the people so that they remember me after my death also,” said Ansari. Though the check-dam is almost complete, still it will take six months more to give it a final touch, Ansari said. Wife Zubaida Khatoon, who also considered him insane initially, joined him looking at his dedication.
“I looked at him strangely when he said that he is going to construct a check-dam for the people as there is acute shortage of water in the region. I did not take him seriously in the beginning, but he continued going to the site for over a month. One day, I followed him and found that he had already done a lot of work then decided to join him in his mission,” said Ansari’s wife. Since then, he never missed a single day and goes there religiously for at least 5 hours a day in the morning to complete his mission, she added. “Looking at his dedication towards his mission, now people have started calling Ansari as the ‘Chota Dashrath Manjhi’ of Jharkhand,” said Khtoon.