DEHRADUN: It’s not rare in remote parts of India for newly laid roads to start crumbling within hours of being built because of sub-standard material used. But Suhani Bisht, 15, of Dewarkhadora village in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district wasn’t ready to take this lying down.
When a 10-km newly laid stretch in the area came undone, the teenager, an aspiring journalist, shot a video and posted it on social media. As the video of her ‘ground repot’ exposing the corruption went viral, the district administration swung into action and rushed to get the stretch re-laid within 12-hours.
The road from Gopeshwar to Ghigraan village had been in a pathetic condition for a long time, with the authorities paying no heed to the complaints of locals. When, after a lot of protest, the road was finally constructed recently, it started disintegrating within a few hours.
“I and my father decided to make a video and share it on social media after we realised that no one has been paying attention to our complaints. We are the taxpayers and we should see to it that the public amenities are up to the mark,” said Suhani.
In her video, the Class 11 student claimed when the villagers protested about the substandard quality of the road work, they were threatened.
She alleged the locals had complained to junior and assistant engineers about the bad quality of construction and sub-standard material used, but were told that ‘commission’ received from such works goes to the highest levels of administration and government.
Her father Dheeraj Bisht, who runs a small dairy, told this newspaper that they were threatened by state public works department (PWD) authorities for complaining about the quality of the road work. Shivam Mittal, assistant engineer, PWD denied the charge.
“We are looking into the matter, but the claims of threats are plain lies. We are responsible people and are working for the people only,” he said.
The locals, however, concurred with the father-daughter duo’s allegations and lashed out at government officials over the corruption.