Tired of waiting for some government response and succour, villagers at Kachua in Marnai under the Itahar police station in North Dinajpur district have started raising funds among themselves to build a bridge over the Sui river there.

A bamboo-made bridge that villagers locally call the ‘mancha’ is the only means for them to cross the river, while the makeshift bridge is washed away by the raging river every monsoon. “Residents of around 10 villages, including Marnai, Kachua, Birnagar, Kapatia and Bistupur, remained in their villages the entire monsoon season. Neither the Itahar block authorities nor the local panchayat took initiatives to construct a proper bridge here,” a villager said.

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The villagers have now started collecting contributions among themselves and are providing a money receipt that says that the fund is being generated for the construction of a bridge, either concrete or wooden. According to villagers like Raghab Sarkar, Aysin Ali and Rebati Das, children from the villages there go to schools across the river, while people there have to cross the river if they want to visit the health centre and anganwadi centres.

“During the monsoon season, the mancha collapses with the rise in the water level in the river. We met the local panchayat members and block officials of Itahar and urged them to build a concrete bridge over the river on several occasions, while political leaders assure us of a bridge every election, but in vain. After elections, they forget everything. As such, we thought of collecting funds among ourselves and are providing villagers with a proper money receipt.

If the collected amount does not allow us to construct a concrete bridge, we will settle down for at least a wooden bridge over the river,” Mr Sarkar said. According to Trinamul Congress MLA from Itahar Musharaf Hossain, they are
taking initiatives to construct a bridge in the area.

“We have built several concrete bridges at different places in Itahar in the past several years. The villagers need a concrete bridge in Kachua village. We are taking initiatives to construct the same there,” he said.