And, The Bus Was Back In The Village…..

This story is about Maan taluka’s Paratwadi village. For years, there was no satisfactory rainfall in this village. Due to which, the lives of the people were disrupted. But in the last year, alot of work had been done by the Government, CORO, HSBC and by the people together. The rainfall received this year was more than expectation, nearly 600 MM. It benefited a lot of people but because the rains exceeded our expectations, the villages had to face severe consequences. Not just the farms got destroyed but the cattles also suffered.

There was a bridge that connected Paratwadi with other villages. It was the only road that connected them. This bridge was in bad condition even before the rains could completely disrupt the connectivity. But still, people continued to use it for commuting.

This monsoons, the bridge began overflowing, and the village lost contact with others. The situation worsened when people were deprived of their daily necessities and childrens’ schools were closed. The S.T bus service (managed by the Govt.) which would visit the village twice a day, collapsed. It couldn’t enter the village because of the disrupted infrastructure. Due to the lack of commuting options, people’ lives became distressful.

Around this time when our CORO team activists tried travelling to Paratwadi, for their regular tasks, they faced major inconvenience. During one such interaction with the village people, they brought up the issue of the broken bridge and its nuisances. They mentioned that this issue was already communicated with the officials and representatives many times. But no one showed any interest. Thus, CORO activists and the village residents prepared a plan together, with Padma Mohite and the women’s group, to take an initiative to write a letter to the tehsildar, the provincial officer by sending out a strong message, and bring the village people together and protest in front of the tehsildar office. Thanks to the letter and the mass protests, the system was alerted, and taking this into consideration, with the approval of Rs. 60000 from the Special Amendment Fund, on 30th December 2019, the road construction was completed. People were connected to each other once again. They were supremely appreciative of the initiative taken by Padma tai and rejoiced full-heartedly. S.T bus which could not travel to the village for a month, started its services once again.