As Malda goes to the rural elections, the ever increasing traffic snarl on the two national highways, the delay in the construction of a by-pass road, lack of good roads in rural areas and partial reconstruction of stretches swept away by flood waters have all come up to haunt the ruling Trinamul Congress big time, while the opposition parties leave no chance to hit out at the government for the poor road connectivity in the district.

While the opposition parties blame what they call the lackadaisical attitude of the administration and political dilly-dallying for the situation, the Trinamul Congress claims that the public here did not give them a chance to work.

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“Despite this, a major portion of the work concerning roads has been done,” TMC sources claimed. During her visits to Malda, CM Mamata Banerjee always complains of people here not “blessing” her.

In the Assembly elections in 2015, the TMC, despite having two cabinet ministers from the district, fared poorly and did not win a single seat. The picture was the same in the last panchayat elections in 2013.

Later, two MLAs, one independent and the others from the CPIM joined the TMC and the Malda Zilla Parishad was taken over by the ruling party with the help of the new members, including the sabhadhipati, Sarala Murmu.

Harishchandrapur-I and II in the northern corner of the district under the Chanchal sub-division were blocks that were worst-hit by the floods last year. It is said that the floodwaters spared no road there.

Ratua-I, and Chanchal-I and II of the same sub- division, and Bamongola and Habibpur in the Sadar sub-division are other blocks in the district plagued by bad roads after waters from the three swollen rivers in the district–Ganga, Mahananda and Fulhar – spilled the banks and entered the settlements.

It is learnt that villages there, the most interior ones, lost all road connectivity after the floods, while they are still suffering. “Almost 40 percent work for the restoration of the roads is yet to be done,” official sources have said.

On the other hand, villages in Manikchak and Kaliachak- II are considered to have the poorest road connectivity. “For the first two-and-a-half years of the tenure in the Malda Zilla Parishad from the Congress, it was impossible to take up big projects like construction of roads extensively throughout the district for severe lack of funds. But we still tried, and this is visible at some places. Later, when the board was taken over by the TMC, we again planned for village roads being funded by the NBDD (North Bengal Development Department). The work was under way, then the poll process began,” the acting Sabhadhipati of the Malda Zilla Parishad, Sarala Murmu, said.

The district secretary of the BJP, Ajoy Ganguly, alleged that leaders of the ruling party had been busy counting their shares of funds meant for the development and services for the public and that a large number of people have been facing big problems going to town areas of the district like English Bazaar for medical or other purposes.

“Interior villages in the district in blocks like Kaliachak- II and III, Manikchak, Ratua-II desperately need construction of new and improvement of old roads, but who cares?” he said.

On the other hand, the two national highways passing through the district, NH- 34 and NH-81, often remain clogged with traffic. The bypass roads to both of these are still under construction, though promises had been made to complete them “very soon.”

The ADM (LR), Debatosh Mandal, said: “We are expecting these by-pass roads to open very shortly and vehicles with no need to enter the town may go by the other side.”