UP’s bridge on the river nowhere

No one realised that the Piparia river, however, had all along been changing course underneath. Just a few days after the inauguration, it rained, the river got flooded and the 200-m approach road leading up to the bridge from one side was washed away. So the bridge now stands there, woefully short of the shore.

For the 15,000 villagers of Piparia, this means Shahbad still remains a 25-km trek around the river, instead of the 210-m stroll across the bridge they had been dreaming of.

Another Rs 3 crore is needed to extend the bridge and cover the yawning 200-m gap, but the government is quite typically a bit lost here. ‘‘It is not ready to part with the money to the Uttar Pradesh Setu Nigam for building the 200 m more to cover the new course of river Piparia,’’ says Hardoi’s District Magistrate Bhuvnesh Kumar.

The other option, changing the river’s course back to where it originally ran, might mean submersion of 10-odd villages.

With the government still weighing its options, villages are now investing in boats to cross the river. Some months ago, 10 villagers sold their land to invest in four boats costing almost Rs 1.5 lakh. It’s now a tidy business for them, carrying villagers up and down: Rs 2 for a one-way trip; Rs 5, if you are carrying a cycle. Buffaloes and cows can go free as they are tied to the boats and swim alongside.

However, many poor villagers find the rates unaffordable. The worst hit are scores of children who travel to Shahbad daily to attend school. Even from the shore the school is at least 4 km away, and many bring cycles, thus doubling the cost.

Several children, mostly girls, have had to leave school as their parents are unable to part with Rs 10 every day for the journey. ‘‘Now three of us share one cycle,’’ says 10-year-old Shubham.

Villagers who use the boats to take vegetables and agricultural produce to be sold in Shahbad are also hit. ‘‘Due to the charges we pay everyday, we have to price the vegetables higher to cover our costs. In Shahbad, given the competition from other sellers, we incur losses,’’ says Raj Asre, one of the sellers.

The boat owners, however, say this is the minimum they can charge keeping in view the regular maintenence the boats demand. ‘‘We do take the aged and schoolgoing girls for free now,’’ claims Hasre Ram, one of the boat owners.

‘‘Maybe Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav could come and see our plight,’’ says a villager. ‘‘After all, we live just 120 km away from his office in the state’s capital.’’

However, as many would tell him, that is sometimes an even harder distance to bridge.