Jiribam: Babukhal villagers denounce lack of motorable road, basic facilities
Lack of motorable road forces villagers to use waterways for transporting pregnant women to hospital
Source: The Sangai Express

Jiribam, November 25 2019: Even after Jiribam became a full fledged revenue district in December 2016, there are many villages in the district which are lacking good road connectivity and basic facilities.

The Babukhal village, around 12 km east of the district HQs and 2.5 km from NH-37, is such a village which has no standard all weather road and lacks basic facilities.

The village has around 38 households.

Expressing their grievances, the locals said the village was established in 1964, whereas due to poor attention of the Government, it has no proper road connectivity making their lives hard.

Jiribam: Babukhal villagers denounce lack of motorable road, basic facilities

Ayekpam Bilashini Devi, a local woman, stated that pregnant women often face life threatening danger due to pathetic conditions of the roads.

Due to absence of proper motorable roads, the villagers prefer waterways to transport them to the nearest hospital.

Usually, the villagers transport the pregnant women on boats and rafts made of bamboos.

Once a woman had delivered child on a raft, she said.

Elders in the village said that there were cases of death during pregnancy owing to the bad condition of the road.

Talking about education, village chairman L Bipin Singh said there is no proper educational institutions, schools in the village.

The village has one Lower Primary school which is in deplorable condition.

Due to poor condition of the road, teachers are not able to come regularly, he said.

Moreover, lack of upper primary and higher education institutions, parents usually send their kids to schools outside the village at district HQs.

Almost all of the parents who have their kids staying at rents in the DHQs are facing immense financial problems due to unavailability of jobs and works in the village, he said.

A local by the name Ayekpam Sanjoy Singh said that most of the villagers are daily wage earners.

The villagers earn livelihoods by selling their meagre farm produces such as vegetables at Jiri bazar.

Transportation of the produces is a problem due to bad road, he said.

Pukhrambam Sorola Devi of the village said even though the villagers have been living there since 1964, the locals do not posses any land documents/pattas.

They had approached the district Settlement & Land Records office many times.

Every household had contributed Rs 1,000 each for land demarcation and procuring Dag-chithas.

They are still yet to get the land documents, she asserted.

The villagers are mainly engaged in rubber plantation, betel leaf farm, carpentry and other small construction works.

The district administration and the Government should look into the grievances of the village and initiate development works to improve the living standard of the people at the earliest, the locals appealed.