On a Mud Strip Over an Unbridgeable River, Lalu is Vikas Purush

Villagers in the Diyara area have to either use a mud bridge or an expensive boat to cross the river.

The peepa pul across the Diyara area. (Photo: The Quint)

Just a few minutes away from the wide four-lane streets of the Danapur Cantonment, less than a 100 meters of water has been causing havoc in the lives of 500,000 people. In Digha on the outskirts of Patna, a relatively small stretch of the Ganga has the local population at its mercy.

Across the river in the Diyara area, there are approximately fifty villages and around 50,000 people. For half the year, there is no way to cross the river except by a boat that charges Rs 10 per trip, a hefty amount for many of its passengers who often earn only Rs 100 a day.

No Govt for the Poor

Pankaj Rai, a farmer who had gone into the city to sell his cabbages, is glad that the river is dry. That means he can walk across it on the peepa pul, a temporary sand and mud bridge. But why hasn’t any government over the last few decades constructed a bridge?

Pankaj Rai. (Photo: The Quint)

There is nothing for the poor, no matter which party forms the government. Even the ration comes only two months in a year. What does it matter to those in power even if our village is washed away?
— Pankaj Rai, a farmer from Diyara village

It’s not as if the locals have not been demanding a bridge. But there seems to be a lack of political will to make this simple project happen.

Jayprakash. (Photo: The Quint)

There is the peepa pul and we can walk across. When it rains, we have to wade through the mud. We have been demanding a proper bridge for years, but it is the vidhayak that can get the bridge made.
— Jayprakash, a farmer from Manas village

Can a Vote Change the Situation?

Not according to Shivkumar Devi. Now in her sixties, her despair has given way to anger. She is tired of the governments that have come and gone and their unfulfilled promises, while she still pays to cross the river for half the year.

Shivkumar Devi. (Photo: The Quint)

I have been crossing this river since I was a girl. So many governments have come and gone. What’s the point of voting?
— Shivkumar Devi

“Lalu At Least Did Something”

Bhikkar Rai, in this fifties, is also angry at the system.

There is nothing here. No bridge, no hospital…nothing. They [politicians] come during elections, fold their hands and ask us for our vote, and then leave. They don’t even care whether we live or die after the elections are over.
— Bhikkar Rai, a resident of Ganghara village

Bhikkar Rai. (Photo: The Quint)

But when we ask him if every politician is as bad as that, he hesitates. He sees Lalu Prasad Yadav in a different light as he was the one who built the peepa pul.

Yes we do vote on caste lines in the hope that someone from our caste will work for us. We voted for Asha Rai [BJP] in the hope of vikas twice, but nothing has happened. Laluji was the one who built the peepa pul. Laluji at least used to share our sorrow. When there was a fire in butani baazar, Lalu provided all the relief he could. When he gave us a sera of rice or wheat, at least we could eat.
— Bhikkar Rai

On a river where there was nothing, even a mud bridge can go a long way.