Fifty-year-old Krishna Nandan Singh and 30-year-old Dhiraj Kumar are complete strangers to each other.
However, two strings bind them together - one being the bridges they wish the people of their respective villages would "soon" see and the angst of repeatedly visiting the doors of their elected leaders, including the janata durbar of chief minister Nitish Kumar.
Nitish today said Monday's janata durbar might have been the last before the elections. Krishna Nandan, a teacher and a social worker, and Dhiraj, a soldier in the Indian Army, left 1 Aney Marg on Monday with an assurance again.
"I hail from the Gadwa Bisanpur village of Sitamarhi, close to the Nepal border. My village, which has around 400 homes, doesn't have a bridge to connect it to the Majorganj block. People have to travel an extra distance of around 9km to reach the block. Around 30 years ago, I took the initiative of constructing a bamboo bridge over the Baha river, connecting my village with the block and the main road. The bridge was weak but it solved the problems of many. After around a year or so, the bridge collapsed in heavy rain. Till now, I have been building the same 80x4ft bridge for the past 31 years for my people. I have come to the janata durbar several times apart from meeting the local leaders and officials, requesting them to construct a permanent bridge. I am old and tired now and I am not capable anymore to construct the bridge now. I hope the state government pays heed to my request," said Krishna Nandan, after meeting the chief minister and rural development minister Shravan Kumar.
Nitish asked Krishna Nandan to meet the minister and both of them had a chat after which he prepared to leave.
Before Krishna Nandan, it was the strongly built Dhiraj, who was spotted standing in the queue to meet Nitish. After reading his application, Nitish directed him to meet Shravan who received him sportingly and offered him some sweets.
Dhiraj, from Gangeya village under Kurtha block of Arwal, around 75km south of Patna, has learnt never to withdraw. "I am a Rashtriya Rifles soldier posted in Jammu and Kashmir. I know the importance of roads and bridges in people's lives. My village is located just 1km from National Highway 98. However, the problem lies that the village is not connected by a bridge, forcing people to take a detour of 15km. The distance has affected the village badly," Dhiraj told The Telegraph.
He added that whenever he gets a leave from duty, he tries to meet the chief minister and other ministers for the cause.
