After two decades of negligence a promise of road from Munda

VIJAY DEO JHA

GIRIDIH/ DHANBAD

It took more than two hours to the blaring flotilla of Chief Minister Arjun Munda to travel 16 km of stretch of Khorimahua-Dhanwar-Jamua road to reach Giridih district headquarter on Monday night during a road inspection visit.

And, it took more than two decades for the state governments to sanction funds for repairing and strengthening of this road. Last time the road was renovated way back in 1990 when Jagannath Mishra was Chief Minister of undivided Bihar.

It is a seer irony that the area was represented by heavyweights like Chandra Mohan Prasad, Lakshman Swarnkar, Ravindra Roy and Lalchand Mahto who were even minister in the successive state governments. All of them are now sulking on the sidelines of the state politics. They were shunted by electorates for not taking bothering about the condition of this road considered as a vital economic life line that connects Giridih with states like West Bengal and Bihar.

Chief Minister Arjun Munda while passing through this dilapidated road understood the political cost involved in neglecting it further. “I have seen the bad condition of this road. The government has decided to sanction amounts for its renovation and tenders will be opened on March 5. I will ensure that construction work is completed within time frame,” Munda informed at a press conference in Giridih on Monday morning.

But before the arrival schedule of Munda in Giridih was announced locals had made their mood known this time. They resisted patch-up work of this road by desperate officials of the road construction department who wanted to fill carters on the road before the arrival of Munda. Only few kilometer of stretch could be patched-up otherwise the rest exposed official apathy of the last two decades.

“As I remember the road was last renovated in 1990 in undivided Bihar when Jagannath Mishra was Chief Minister. The condition of road is very bad…and nobody cared about this,” Bablu Pathak a young social activist said. A major stretch of this road passes through Giridih parliamentary constituency which is being represented by Ravindra Pandey of the BJP.

“It is not a simple story Sir,” interrupts Pramod Chaudhary, a local journalist. “In fact this road remained neglected due to political reason. While the BJP controls parliamentary seat but its assembly constituencies are under the control of the non-BJP parties like the JVM and the RJD. Even the JVM chief Babulal Marandi, who often blames BJP led state government over the road issue; does not want it to be developed. He will lose a point to target the state government. I feel Marandiji is a big stumbling block,” he said.

The 35.260 km long Khorimahua-Jamua road passes through Rajdhanwar and Jamua assembly constituency represented by Nizamuddin Ansari and Chandrika Mahto of the JVM.

While Munda rejected any such political consideration behind decade long negligence of the road but he pricked Marandi with classic banter. “I hope you must be happy. If anybody is unhappy please let me know,” Munda said.

Leaving Giridih around 10.30 on Monday morning Dhanbad was the next destination of Munda where baffling sets of local concerns were ready to welcome him: long standing rehabilitation issue of people in Jhariya coal belt and drinking water problem of Dhanbad.

“Rehabilitation of thousands of population of Jhariya is a big. The issue comes within the jurisdiction of the Central government and the Union Coal Ministry that want to vacate the area due to underground fire and further exploration of coal. But I will certainly demand special package from the Centre for rehabilitation of resident of Jhariya,” Munda told The Pioneer.