Patna,(BiharTimes): Tragedies can happen anywhere––in primary school at Masrakh in Saran district or on rail track in Dhamara Ghat in Khagaria district. But it is the state government’s response, which is repeatedly exposing its tall claims, especially in the education, health and road sectors.
The big question is: why it took almost eight hours for the relief team of district administration and police to reach the accident site. Even the Minister of State for Railways, Adheer Ranjan Choudhary, could reach the place 15 hours later after midnight.
The reason cited by the officials is that there is no road in the radius of at least six kilometres of Dhamara Ghat, even though thousands of people congregate here on all four Mondays of Shrawan. Not to speak of mela (fair) in which devotees would assemble in Shrawan, Dhamara Ghat has its own population too, that is why passenger trains used to stop here. And in spite of that it has no roads in the entire vicinity.
Local people, who are now agitating for roads, say that Lalu Yadav, Rabri Devi and Nitish Kumar had all promised road here but it never came up. It is true that Lalu and Rabri regimes were never credited for building roads in Bihar nor was there any centrally-sponsored Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) then as it is now. Even the central grant for National Highways to Bihar has increased manifold during the Nitish rule than in the past. Yet why then could the road not be built in the last seven and a half years when the state government claimed that it has taken up rural road projects for every villages and hamlets having population of 500. But then it is also true that Dhamara Ghat may be a few exceptions and in rest of the state all the rural roads may have been built.
But the reality-check would help know the real picture of Bihar’s hinterland. During the recent Maharajganj by-poll even journalists busy in praising Nitish for building all the roads had to write that the condition of roads is deplorable in many parts of Siwan and Saran districts––the constituency is spread in these two districts.
As if that is not enough: just dare to travel down from the Grand Trunk Road in Sherghatty to Dumaria and one would know the horrible condition of this road. This 60-odd km long road in the Maoists’ affected part of Gaya district passes through Banke Bazar and Imamganj. While the Rural Works Minister Bhim Singh, an MLC, is originally from Banke Bazar, the Speaker of Bihar Assembly Uday Narayan Chaudhary represents Imamganj.
The condition of this road has gone from bad to worse even though millions of rupees have gone down the drains.
It is true the National Highways is in a better shape now but the credit for this goes to the Centre and not the state government. However, some state highways have, of course, been built in the last few years. But the Nitish government is not yet able to fully utilize the PMGSY fund for the rural roads.
Earlier last month the Gandaman-Dharamsati (Masrakh) case of poisoning exposed the pathetic condition of education and health in the state even though thousands of crores of centrally sponsored Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and National Rural Health Mission funds have been allotted to the state.
The Masrakh school was running in a community centre as it does not have its own building––not to speak of separate kitchen. And when after the poisoning the children were rushed to Primary Health Centres it was found totally unprepared for this occasion. There was only one doctor and two para-medic staff present on duty then and there was hardly any medicine. It took several hours for the children to be brought to Patna Medical College and Hospital.
So both in Masrakh or Dhamara Ghat the Disaster Management team failed to respond.
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