SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, March 1: The tragic boat accident in the Barakar River between Dhanbad and Jamtara districts has put the present Chief Minister Hemant Soren and three past chief ministers of the state in the dock.
People’s representatives of ruling and opposition parties, including Congress Jamtara MLA Dr. Irfan Ansari, BJP Nirsa MLA Aparna Sengupta and former Nirsa MLA Arup Chatterjee have pointed finger at them saying that the boat tragedy would have not happened had the last five state governments completed the Barbendia Bridge construction on Barakar river in 13 years.
In the boat tragedy on February 24, the bodies of 13 people have been recovered and some villagers are still feared missing.
As per charges of the MLAs, all the chief ministers, including present Hemant Soren failed to complete the bridge in 13 years despite people’s representatives and leaders raising the issue from time to time in the assembly and before the government.
The bridge holds importance as the road distance between Dhanbad and Jamtara is 65 km and the proposed Barbendia Bridge would reduce it to merely 16 km. People of both the districts, especially the poor and patients, prefer boats rather than buses to travel which comes at a low cost and makes them reach the destination in a short period.
Construction of Barbendia Bridge started in 2007-08 at the cost of Rs 36.57 lakhs. The then Chief Minister Madhu Koda laid the foundation stone of the bridge on January 20, 2008. But on August 20, 2009, two pillars of the bridge were swept away and three bent in a flood.
One year later, Arjun Munda became the chief minister (September 11, 2010 to December 18, 2013) and the file of the bridge was put in cold storage.
However, when Hemant Soren became the chief minister (July 2013 to December 2014), following the pressure of the then MLA Arup Chatterjee and former minister Arpana Sengupta, the state government sent a three-member high-level committee in 2014 to assess the reconstruction of the bridge. Before Hemant Soren initiated any step, the government changed in the state after the assembly election.
After this, Raghubar Das became the chief minister (December 2014 to December 2019) and in five years of his government, he did not heed the demands of people and their representatives. Hence, the construction of the bridge remained a lurch.
The hope of people rekindled for the bridge when Hemant Soren became the chief minister again (December 2019 to date). But in two years due to the Corona pandemic, he has not been able to do anything about it.
“It is an irony that five chief ministers took the helm of the state but the fate of Dhanbad- Jamtara people’s lifeline (bridge) did not change,” said Sudarshan Mandal of Nirsa whose relatives live on the other side of the river in Jamtara.
Notably, people’s representatives of the region, especially Arup Chatterji of Marxists Coordination Committee (MCC) and Aparna Sengupta as Forward Bloc leader as well as now BJP MLA, have been agitating for the bridge for a long time now but no government has paid attention yet.
