Excelsior Correspondent
UDHAMPUR, May 9: The residents of Mang in Basantgarh area of District Udhampur have demanded construction of bridge over Ujh to provide safe connectivity to the people of several villages in the area who are forced to cross the river at the risk of their life.
The local villagers and farmers have been facing problems crossing the river and transporting their produce as well as cattle. Although the villagers have been demanding construction of bridges over the river in Mang for long, and their plight was listened to by the officers in both Back to Village programmes held previous year, nothing has been done to remove the woes of the people so far.
“We have repeatedly approached authorities during successive regimes, but our requests fell on deaf ears. We are scared for the safety of our children who have to cross over a temporary wooden bridge to reach school,” said the locals.
Previous month, a woman had swept away after she along with her two year daughter was crossing the river over wooden plank and fell into water. The deceased was going to buy wheat flour from a traditional watermill and accidently slipped into water. Even as some locals managed to rescue the two year old girl, the mother could not be saved and her body could not be recovered.
Over the years, many people have lost their life in unfortunate incidents while crossing the river by wooden planks but the District Administration is unmoved yet, lamented the locals.
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