Nahan, Oct 6 (PTI) Villagers in Himachal Pradesh’s Sirmaur district had to carry the body of an 80-year-old woman on their shoulders for nearly six kilometres to reach her village after a road damaged during the monsoon remained closed.
Parma Devi, a resident of Tina Gularwala village in Dhageda panchayat of Nahan subdivision’s Dharti Dhar area, died during treatment at PGI Chandigarh on Sunday.
After her death, the body was brought by vehicle from Chandigarh to the main road connecting Dharti Dhar and Rama Dhageda. However, with the road ahead to Tina Gularwala closed, villagers tied the body to a pole and carried it on their shoulders for about six kilometres over a rough and uneven route to reach the village.
The body was subsequently taken to the village’s cremation ground for the last rites.
Villagers told PTI on Tuesday that the road has been damaged since the onset of the monsoon and remains closed. This year, the monsoon arrived in Himachal Pradesh on June 30 and withdrew on October 3.
According to the villagers, the approximately eight-kilometre-long Tina Gularwala road was constructed in 2014 and inaugurated by then Nahan MLA Rajiv Bindal.
The road connects Tina Gularwala, along with Bendli, Roz Katli and more than half a dozen other surrounding villages, to the Rama-Dhageda main road.
Further ahead, the route passes through the Jalmoosa river and connects with the Paonta Sahib-Kala Amb National Highway near Katasan Temple, close to Kolar village.
Virendra Singh Thakur, a block development council (BDC) member from the area, said the consequences of the road closure were being felt not just in emergencies but in everyday life.
“The consequences of the road closure are being suffered not only after death, but also in everyday life. Taking the sick to the hospital on time has become a difficult task and farmers’ crops are being ruined in the fields because they cannot be transported to the markets,” he said.
Thakur said farmers, students and other villagers were facing severe difficulties due to the closure. He added that the road currently falls under the jurisdiction of the panchayat.
“Every year, the Public Works Department restores the closed road, but this time the road remains closed,” he said.
Villagers Rohit, Anil, Ramendra, Surendra and Pinku Singh told PTI that after the road was constructed in 2014, residents of the area got road connectivity and transportation facilities for the first time since Independence.
However, since the road was closed during the monsoon, residents have been forced to walk several kilometres to reach markets, hospitals, schools, colleges, the tehsil and district headquarters, they said.
The villagers have demanded that the road be restored at the earliest.
Local panchayat pradhan Narendra acknowledged that the road was closed due to damage caused by the monsoon and said the Public Works Department had already been informed.
He expressed hope that the road would be restored soon. PTI COR BPL NB
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