Road? what road?

Oct. 29: It’s another rural story of neglect and apathy.

For residents of Tipkai, under Parbatjhora subdivision of this Bodoland Territorial Council-administered district, pure drinking water and a doctor are luxuries.

In the absence of a proper road link to the subdivisional headquarters of Kazigaon and the district headquarters town of Kokrajhar, the villagers are forced to live almost an isolated existence.

“The area falls under Kokrajhar, the headquarters of the BTC, but there’s hardly any development and the authorities choose to ignore us. Repeated complaints fall on deaf ears,” B. Brahma, a retired schoolteacher said.

Residents of this remote area also voice concern over poor healthcare facilities with doctors rarely setting foot there.

“Despite having the required infrastructure, including quarters for doctors and nurses, the patients have to suffer silently. There’s only one nurse at the primary health centre,” Amar Brahma said.

The subsidiary health centre at Dhuligaon, lying abandoned for many years, is now being used as a cattleshed.

The crumbling healthcare system has spread panic in the locality. In the event of an emergency, villagers have to rush patients either to Gauripur or Dhubri.

They have to travel the distance even for treatment of small ailments.

“We have basic infrastructure like primary health centres, a veterinary unit and a water supply plant but these have remained in a state of neglect for many years for reasons best known to the government. The public health engineering department has failed to supply safe drinking water to residents of Tipkai, Tulsijhora, Sangmanda, Palasguri and Dhuligaon,” a villager said.

The forest range office in Tipkai under Parbatjhora forest division also lies abandoned. The condition of the agriculture extension office in Tipkai is no better.

The residents’ demand for the improvement of the Gossaigaon-Tipkai-Kazigaon, Mahamaya-Kajalgaon-Tipkai and Tipkai-Sapatgram roads has also been ignored.

“See the conditions of the roads. No vehicle can ply on these roads even during autumn. So you can imagine what they turn into during the monsoon, ” a villager said.