Women build road to school that authorities won’t touch

PUNE: That God helps those who help themselves was proved by the residents of Baner and Balewadi on Sunday when they got together to construct a make-shift approach road to Vibgyor High school behind Mercedes-Benz showroom on the highway.
The women of the area led a citizen's revolution by not only arranging the raw material and road levelling machinery, but also getting down and joining hands for the actual work.
The 'road' has never been constructed as it is stuck in a tangle among Pune Municipal Corporation, Sus Panchayat and PMRDA authorities since the last six years.
Students and residents of the area were facing a lot of hardship while driving over the broken and pothole filled stretch, made worse by the monsoon.
Two-wheelers routinely got stuck in the slush and students had to endure a bumpy ride all the way to their school.
The affected parents and residents of the area made many unsuccessful attempts to get the civic authorities to construct the 500-odd metres of road. Angry and desperate for the road, they even knocked on the doors of the PM and Union ministers, tweeting and mailing them details of their plight, with no real progress.
The aggrieved group, united virtually through their own group on WhatsApp finally and decided to take matters into their own hands.
The initiative was led by a mother of a student studying in Vibgyor High. She not only managed to arrange the raw material including the stones and the machinery, but also got a team of labourers to assist in their work. Men and kids all joined in the work, all doing their bit of 'shram daan'.
Describing her inspiration, the woman, who insisted on anonymity, said, "We have done this for our children who have been suffering because of the poor condition of the road. My vehicles too have suffered from it. There are many who come on two-wheelers and walk all the way to the school. The least they deserve is a levelled road. It was all about getting everyone together."
Work began at 10am on Sunday and continued till late in the afternoon. It will resume again on Monday. While it is only a temporary solution, the locals are hopeful that it will survive at least till the end of the rainy season.
Parents who joined in the effort were happy and proud of their achievement. Parent Jaya Chandra said, "Taking such a step really needs courage and willingness to work for society. This initiative is proof that one small step is the key to a bigger movement. I am doing it for my kids to teach them the valuable lesson that a single person can lead by taking a small step. When tomorrow morning they will see the changed road to their school, they will be happy to know that it's their parents' contribution."
In many ways, the catalyst for the revolution proved to be Pune Municipal Corporation putting up its hands when requested, citing paucity of funds.
Expressing exasperation at the civic body's apathy to the plight of students and senior citizens, Shwetambari Shetye said, "The PMC has been spending crores of rupees to break down fully functional roads to concrete them. It is shocking that they could not help make just a basic, levelled approach road for our children to go to school. It used to pain us to hear our children complaining of their heads banging against the seat in front of them when travelling over the bumpy patch. Now, we feel proud and happy to be associated with this social movement."
Sapna Bhargava too joined the 'shram daan'. "This is a slap on the face of the authorities. We have given it what we could - our time, effort and money. We hope it will wake up the government," she added.
Ashish Bhargava, a resident of Teerth Towers, said, "We have done just the basic work today. We0 will pray that it lasts for some time. It should get the authorities to demarcate the land among the stakeholders and give it a permanent, levelled and asphalted road."
Local area politician Amol Balwadkar, who has been supporting the group for a long time, said, "We only want to convey a message to PMC that we have done the road repairing which is their responsibility. We will be tweeting to the CM tomorrow when we complete the work."