No bridge, no vote, says Ballia village with post office in Bihar

LUCKNOW: Tinku Thakur, a 22-year-old youth living in Nauranga village of Ballia, missed the opportunity to join the Indian Army this February because he couldn't receive his interview letter on time. His letter reached two days after the scheduled date because it was sent via a Bihar post office and not from any Ballia post office.
The odd location of his village, which has Ganga on one side and an embankment road on other side, prevents any postman from delivering letters to them.Like him there are over 300 youths across this gram panchayat who are suffering due to the curse of odd location of their villages.
This gram panchayat (Bairia constituency) comprises four villages -Bhuwal Chapra, Nauranga, Chakki Nauranga and Uddai Chapra which form the border of UP and Bihar. There are over 25,000 people living in these villages of which around 10,000 are registered voters. Because there's no bridge on Ganga to con nect these villages to UP, no post office is able to deliver letters to them, hence they have to depend on a nearby post office in Bhrampur village of Bihar. This takes too much time and their letters reach almost 3-4 months late.
These villagers are so miffed with the government's apathy and its reluctance to build a bridge on the Ganga to connect them with UP that they have decided to boycott 2017 elections. Tinku says, “You can call it my bad luck that I was born in Nauranga. I have missed many opportunities because of a delay in delivery of interview and joining letters. My interview letter for the Army reached on February 25 while it was scheduled for February 23. Like me, there are many others in these villages who apply for SSB, CRPF, banking exams every year, but never get to appear on time.“ Frustrated with the negligence, the youths of this village have formed a `Yuva Manch' in November 2016 to put forth their demands before the government. A villager, Pankaj Pandey says, “No election has ever helped us because the leaders never care for our development. For them Ballia is only till Ganga's left border while we are stuck between Ganga's right bank and Bihar border. Though our local address is of Ballia, we have to put the postal address of Bihar to receive our letters.“
The village roads are all kuchha with no leader ever giving funds for their construction. A local, Vashishth Pandey says, “Our patients have to be taken to a Bihar hospital even though we have good hospitals in Ballia just because we have no connectivity across Ganga. Because of bad roads, ambulances can't reach here and we carry our patients on cots to a nearby village of Bihar.A bridge is badly needed here but no one has ever given importance to this.“