BARPETA, April 27 � Though the government both in the State and the Centre are claiming tremendous development in the road communication sector, the Chenga-Bar Agdia road in Barpeta district speaks of a different story altogether. This old and important road connects Barpeta-Daulashal-Hajo Road and Nagaon-Sarthebari-Nalbari road in two ends. This is the only means of communication for the people of more than ten villages such as Bar Agdia, Sarihakuchi, Baramara, Dakshin Bar Agdia, Dakshin Sarihakuchi and Agdia Pathar etc. Besides it provides shortest route for communication for more than fifty villages in the district.
A portion of the road measuring nearly 100 metres was washed away during the devastating flood in 1984. As a result, a big pond was created in the middle of the road which divided the long road into two parts. Strong current of the water in the successive floods have made it deeper year after year.
Since then the communication of the villagers living in the interior areas have become a challenge specially during the rainy season. As there is no institution of higher education in the locality children aspiring for education have to travel to Gahiya Higher Secondary, BBK College at Nagaon or Madhya Kamrup College at Chenga. But they have to face a lot of trouble in their journey to school and college.
For health care also they have to depend on the Gahiya, Nagaon or Chenga PHC. There is no alternative road to take the agricultural products to the nearby markets. So the farmers are deprived of their legitimate price against their hard earned harvest.
The people have been demanding of construction of a bridge there for the last 27 years. But the successive governments and the public representatives have been turning a deaf ear to the genuine demand of the public for this long period. Helpless before the concerned authorities, they have constructed a bamboo bridge over it only to repair it for several times during one summer as there is unusual rush of commuters in all the seasons of the year.
This area is situated towards the north west of Chenga constituency and to the south west of Sarukshetri constituency. It is almost isolated from the main are of the both the constituencies. The people here allege that no MLA takes the problems of this area seriously as they don�t consider it politically beneficial. No leader also visits this area except during election.
It is expected that the concerned authorities will look into the woes of the public in no time and construct a bridge there at the earliest.
