Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, September 7

Havildar Subhash Chand laid down his life while fighting terrorists in Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir on December 5, 2014. However, six years after the martyrdom, his family is still waiting for a pucca road to their Bharana Da Bassa village in Bhatiyat area of Chamba district as promised by politicians.

Ashwani Kumar, son of Havildar Subhash Chand, while talking to The Tribune, said that just 1.5-km road has to be constructed to connect their village to Luhni which has pucca road connectivity. “Local politicians and officials, who visited our village after the martyrdom of my father, promised to construct a pucca road to their village. However, it has been six year but the work on construction of road was yet to be started,” he said.

“We are not demanding anything for our family. We are just saying that their village should be connected with a road. The residents face difficulties due to lack of road connectivity to their village. It is difficult to carry people suffering from medical emergencies in their village to the nearest hospital. In monsoons when the kucha road becomes muddy it was difficult to ply even two wheelers on it,” Ashwani said.

He further said that the students have to walk long distances to reach school. “I just want that the martyrdom of my father should be honoured by the government by constructing 1.5-km road to connect their village,” Ashwani said.

Chamba district of Himachal was selected under Vision 22 program of the union government as a backward district. It was one of the 115 districts selected across the country that were be developed at a fast pace under the Union government scheme named “Aspirational District Yojana”.

Chamba had been selected under the scheme as it was lagging behind on various development indices as compared to other districts of the state.

As per the statistical report of the state government, Chamba district has the lowest literacy in the state. Out of the total 3,257-km road length in the district more than 50 per cent was single lane and 251 km can only be trekked by jeeps. The industrial facility in the district was among the lowest in the state. Only tribal districts of Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur lagged behind Chamba in industrialization. However, till date the district was yet to see any development under the Central scheme.