Long neglected village

Did you ever hear any political leader or Government functionary or public servant make any mention of a strange and unfamiliar name like Nerak? No, none has ever heard it. Perched at a height of 13500 feet above sea level on the Karakorum Range near famous Chadar track in Zanskar Range of Ladakh, Nerak can be reached only after crossing the Zanskar River. Eighty years ago, the Namgyal ruling house of Ladakh had constructed a wooden bridge over the river that enabled the inhabitants cross over and travel to Leh if they at all needed to come to district headquarters. Eighty years have gone by; the condition of the wooden bridges has been deteriorating year after year and in absence of security measures many human lives and cattle heads have been lost as they fell into the gushing waters of the river and were washed down. The bridge that has been the only link between the village folks of this neglected habitat and the world outside has become unsafe for use. And when the bridge was not there, the road too was a dream for the people of this village.
The worst is that during six decades and half of independence, nobody ever paid any attention to the supplication after supplication made by the inhabitants of this village. Their demand was not for anything like healthcare, education, food supplies, electricity, and other essentials but simply on providing them a strong and durable bridge over the river. Their dream did not come true for last six decades and a half. People and cattle heads continued to be lost to the fury of the waves of a roaring river. What were the district level developmental authorities doing all these sixty-five years are anybody’s guess?
But it seems that three quarter-century-long wait of the people of this tiny village is coming to an end, thanks to a very conscientious Deputy Commissioner of Leh who took bold and visionary initiative of deciding to see that a strong and viable iron bridge was constructed over River Zanskar at the spot of the village called Nerak. Long term planning was needed and the requisite paraphernalia had to be trans-shipped all the way from the plains of India to these Karakoram heights. On the intervention of Deputy Commissioner of Leh and the special goodwill gesture shown by the authorities of the Indian Air Force both at Leh and the base headquarter, it was made possible to airlift 12 tons of iron in the shape of material to be used in the construction of steel bridge at the site.  We are simply puzzled why did not administrative authorities, both at Leh and Srinagar, ever think that they owed responsibility to the inhabitants of this tiny village. Why did not they think of providing basic infrastructure to the village people like the connecting road, bridge, electricity and health care facility?
Now that with the help of the Indian Air Force building material has been airlifted and engineers have also been flown to take up the construction work, what is of importance is that the Government should mount its attention on the development of the region with a definite developmental plan and strategy. The Home Ministry recently announced special package for road construction in Ladakh region. With this help, it should be possible to construct the connecting road link to reduce the time for travelling to district headquarters at Leh. With the permanent iron bridge coming up soon, the destiny of this and other villages will change. .

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