Uttarakhand labourer carves road 'govt failed to make'

ALMORA: Like Dashrath Manjhi of Bihar, who had carved out a road using a chisel and hammer through a ridge, Uttarakhand's Prakash Goswami has carved out a 500 m road by cutting the hillside in nine months to connect his village to the main road.
Goswami of Gwar village in Bageshwar's Garud area used to work as a caretaker at a Mumbai household and returned to his native village last year. Here, he earns around Rs 600 per day as a labourer and his wife does odd jobs in the village.
"Some stretches still need to be widened, but the road is nearly ready. Now, even four-wheelers can reach my house. Around 300 people will be benefited from this road. I received no help from the authorities or even from villagers, who often taunted me," said Goswami, who worked from 5 am to 9 am every day since June last year to build the road.
It may be mentioned that in many remote areas of Uttarakhand, villages are yet to be connected to the main roads. During emergencies, no car or bike can go up to houses perched on hilltops. Meanwhile, in Bageshwar's Kanda area, locals have been demanding a road for the past 20 years. Recently, a group of around 10 women started working on constructing a road themselves.
No road connectivity to 84 villages: Report
One of these women, Pushpa Devi, said, "Taking pregnant women and elderly persons to hospitals becomes difficult. There's an Auxiliary Nurse and Midwife (ANM) centre in Bhandari village. To reach there, women patients have to walk a long way. We needed the road urgently."
Former village head, Kishnati Bora, said, "Our village, with around 200 residents, was named an 'Atal Adarsh village' but no work has been done here to befit the title."
According to a report by the Migration Prevention Commission, there are at least 84 villages in Uttarakhand that are yet to be connected by roads. In some places, villagers even have to walk 10 km to reach the main road. Ajay Tamta, MP from Almora, said he had no knowledge of the matter and would look into it.