Villagers Along Indo-Bangla Border In West Bengal Suffer Amid Trinamool Congress-BJP Bickering
Amid a blame game between the ruling Trinamool and BJP to repair just 2 km of road, residents have been caught in between.
Published : September 14, 2025 at 7:31 PM IST
Malda: Last Thursday, Namita Hansda of Petrolgarh village in Serampur panchayat of Habibpur block of Malda started having labour pains and family members called an ambulance. But the vehicle could not travel the last 2 km to reach her house because of the poor road condition. She delivered a boy at home and both the mother and son had to be carried on a stretcher for 2 km and then taken to the local Bulbulchandi RN Roy Rural Hospital in an ambulance for further care.
The instance reveals the plight of the people residing in three villages on the Indo-Bangla border where the vehicles cannot reach even on the days when there is no rain.
The work of repairing a small patch of road is not being done on account of the bickering between the leaders of Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Namita Devi's husband, Sanjit Soren, said, "No vehicle enters our village because of the bad road. On Thursday night, I failed to transport my wife when she needed medical attention the most. It was only after she delivered that we could bring her to the hospital. Both my wife and child are healthy."
On July 30 this year, 71-year-old Rani Soren of the neighbouring Ranjitpur village and before that 60-year-old Kanu Hembram of Mestorepara died because of the people not being able to transport them to medical facilities from their doorstep.
The people have been demanding a proper road to their villages for long and even have been blocking the Malda-Nalagola state highway to air their demand.
A local resident Silip Hembram complained, “Every year, there are deaths because of there being no proper road. The administration has not taken any initiative to repair only 2 km of the stretch After Namita gave birth at home, we again went to the panchayat office and demanded that the road be repaired.””
“Our gram panchayat is represented by the Trinamool Congress that is in power in the state. We were promised development but even that has not been repaired,” he added.
The Panchayat Pradhan (Head) while acknowledging the villagers' problems explained, "The distance from Petrolgarh to the main road is about 3.5 km. Of this, 2 km of road is in very bad condition. Not only Petrolgarh, but the people of Prasadpur and Ranjitpur villages also are facing problems." He said the Panchayat did not have the resources to get the job done.
The District Vice-President of Trinamool Congress, Shubhmoy Basu claimed, “The MP, MLA, Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti presidents of the area are from the BJP. Why aren’t they taking the initiative to repair that road?”
He accused the BJP functionaries of blaming the state government while not dispensing their own responsibilities.
On the other hand, BJP’s District Council member Tarashankar Roy while refuting Shubhmoy Basu’s charges said, "This is the design of the Trinamool. In places where the BJP has a gram panchayat or panchayat samiti, the state government does not allocate any money for development work."
He said the local MLA wanted to allocate funds for repairing the road but the district administration did not give the required permission.
Meanwhile, the Block Development Officer (BDO) at Habibpur, Manoj Kanjilal said, “Initiatives have been taken to repair the road and the work is expected to start after the monsoon.”
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