Ausgram (Burdwan), Sept. 2: The Gift of the Magi has arrived but benevolence needs to be showered from another corner as well to make it priceless.

Around 35 schoolchildren from three villages in Burdwan's Ausgram have received shoes from the chief minister but they cannot wear them because there is no road. Shoes in hand, the children have to walk on a narrow muddy path that cuts through paddy fields and wade through the knee-deep water of a 40ft-wide river to reach the school, around 5km from their homes.

The local panchayat has taken the initiative to lay a gravel road to connect the three villages, but its efforts have been thwarted by the unwillingness of landowners to part with slices of their cultivable plots as they do not live in the area and are immune from the problem.

The panchayat also plans to build a wooden bridge across the river after the monsoon.

The children of the Bablabani, Amanidanga and Dhadanga villages put on the shoes only after reaching Peyarigunj Primary School in Kanksa to protect them from the mud and water.

On January 19, chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who was on her way to Burdwan town from Bolpur, had stopped her convoy at the sight of children standing barefeet along the road and waving at the cars. The teachers accompanying the children had told the chief minister that the kids' parents were too poor to afford school shoes. The children had got uniforms under a government scheme but no shoes.

Mamata had called up education minister Partha Chatterjee immediately and instructed him to make arrangements for free shoes for primary school children across the state.

On February 25, all 35 students of Peyarigunj Primary School got a new pair of black leather shoes each.

"I walk barefoot through the narrow muddy path and cross the river every day to reach school. I carry the shoes in my hand because they will be damaged if I wear them on the way. I wear the shoes only after reaching school," said Manju Hembram, a Class V student who was in the group that had spoken to the chief minister.

Around 100 families, mostly tribals, live in Bablabani, Amanidanga and Dhadanga. As the villages do not have a road, they use the narrow path through the paddy fields and cross the Kunur river to reach the nearest market, hospital, school and gram panchayat office.

"We have been demanding a road connecting the three villages and a bridge across the river for many years, but nothing has been done. We boycotted the last Assembly elections as we feel the government is neglecting us," said Rabi Soren, a farmer.

The residents of the three villages do not buy bicycles or motorcycles as they cannot use them in the absence of a road.

"We face a lot of difficulties while taking patients to hospital. We have to carry them on our shoulders," said farmer Budhan Soren.

Shyamal Bakshi, the chief of the local Trinamul-run Debshala gram panchayat, said the rural body took up a project to build a gravel road and a wooden bridge after the villagers boycotted the Assembly polls.

"We need 60 bighas to construct the road, but nobody is agreeing to part with cultivable land. Those who own farmland in the three villages live in other areas and do not have to face the problems the residents encounter. So, they are not interested in giving land," Bakshi said.

Burdwan zilla parishad chief Debu Tudu promised to look into the matter. "We will construct a road," he said.

Some of the landowners said they would part with land only if they were compensated according to the market rate.

Biplabjit Ghosh, who owns 20 acres of farmland in the three villages, said: "The panchayat had requested me to donate a little over three acres. But why should I give my land for free? The going rate here is Rs 12 lakh an acre. I am ready to sell the land, but I can't give it for free."

Bakshi said the panchayat was not in a position to spend so much money. "We have informed the zilla parishad," he said. Tudu said the zilla parishad would provide funds to buy land for the construction of the road.