April 23: The sun burnt the portico and poached the asbestos roof.

But Paban Bora thanked god for the scorching heat and set out with his spade. He had a road to repair.

Never mind the sweat, the temperature would help the concrete dry faster.

In a celebration of self-reliance, hundreds of villagers in Kathigorah block of Cachar have begun constructing a 2-km muddy stretch, which had not received even a single coating of tar even after repeated pleas to the district administration and legislators.

The stretch from Lamar Dudhpur to Dudhpur bazar becomes a muddy disaster even after a moderate shower, making life difficult for 1,500 people who have to cross the area daily on their way to work.

Pleas to Union minister Sontosh Mohan Dev and MLA Ataur Rahman Majharbhuiya went unheeded.

“We thought they would help us, but they did not and hence we were compelled to do it on our own,” said a village veteran, Amir Uddin Choudhury.

After years of neglect, the villagers decided to take the matter into their own hands, quite literally, picking up spades to pave the way to easier transportation.

The job, of course, is voluntary.

Now that the villagers have learnt to help themselves, they have also realised that they don’t need politicians to provide them with basic amenities. No slogans or protests against the legislators, the villagers have merely threatened to boycott the elections.