Jadugora (Ghatshila): A pregnant woman is carried on a cot across 6km of squelch to reach the nearest morum road and get an auto for 9km of bumpy ride to the nearest town for delivery. The commute takes at least three hours. Able-bodied people hold aluminium vessels to keep their balance and wade through a swelling rivulet to reach the same town in 30 minutes.
Welcome to an Adarsh Gram or ideal village of Jharkhand government, just 48km from industrial capital Jamshedpur, where monsoon commute is primitive enough to draw gasps of disbelief.
Revenue village Saspur, with three tolas Bagan Tola, Gurudwar and Saspur and 702 residents, is virtually marooned every monsoon from its lifeline - Jadugora township.
For over three months of rain, a narrow thread-like stream locally called UCIL nallah, barely 20 metres long in summers and winters, becomes a fast-moving 100-metre-long rivulet as UCIL barrage gates at Jadugora are opened. How does it affect commute? In summer or winter, people cross the barely-there rivulet to reach Jadugora town in 10 minutes.
But in monsoon, the river is not navigable for most. People take the road only to discover there is none.
At least, none till the CRPF camp 6km away, which calls for a risky, muddy walk. Then comes the 9km morum road full of craters, potholes and broken patches. Finally comes the smooth, double-lane Jadugora Road which leads people to UCIL Hospital, Rajkiyakrit Uchha Vidyalaya (or Jadugora high school) and various markets.
Saspur in Matigora panchayat under Mosaboni block under Ghatshila subdivision of East Singhbhum, is ironically one of the 100 adarsh villages of the state, chosen by Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society under rural development department.
Asked for her reaction, Sumita Devi, 30, wife of vegetable seller Ashok Mahto, who made the 15km journey to reach Jadugora Road and deliver her son at UCIL Hospital last Thursday, said she was lucky she survived the jerks in her highly pregnant state.
Ganesh Bhagat, 28, who went to Jadugora market on Tuesday, said, "Thank god I am fit enough to cross the stream."
Saspur gram pradhan Arabindo Bhagat, 76, is not as lucky, he smiled ruefully. "At my age it is tough to cross the stream even in the dry months. In monsoon it is impossible. But, many take the stream as the road we have is not a road," Bhagat said.
For school-going children and their parents, it is a daily horror. "My daughter in Class VI was swimming the stream to reach her school in Jadugora this monsoon, but for the past three days currents are swift," said Saspur resident Raju Mahto.
Matigora panchayat mukhiya Kartik Hembrom said the problem was severe. "We pray no one falls seriously ill during monsoon. Last monsoon, the district administration held talks with UCIL to arrange boats for villagers. This year, the boats are damaged. We are requesting district officials to repair the road (dirt stretch and morum) as we do not have funds," he said. BDO Santosh Gupta said a proposal for road repair and a new bridge had been submitted to the district administration.
Ghatshila BJP MLA Laxman Tudu under whose constituency the village falls, said DPR and funds for a bridge would be sanctioned after monsoon. He also promised to speak to UCIL for stopgap boats during emergencies.
