Residents donate money to build footbridge in Bandipora village

Bandipora, Aug 26: The  villagers living on the hillside of Sumlar in north Kashmir's Bandipora district, which is mostly semi-tribal, took matters into their own hands and built a footbridge after repeated demands to the government over the years remained caught up in official wrangling.

"We had appealed to the government multiple times, but nothing was done," Naseer Ahmad Khan Turk, a youth from upper Sumlar village said as welders assisted by locals continued to work on an Iron footbridge over a freshwater stream on Sunday.

The stream, which cuts off two uphill villages of Koota Sathri and Sumalr Gujjarpati, had no convenient connection, with the nearest bridges located "kilometres away."

Even though the majority of the population is living in a penury, they took a step to end their "daily misery".

"We have a deep connection with the villages on the other side of the stream, and being cut off for years, we were compelled to do something," Khan said, adding, following which "youth from the village decided donations be made for the construction."

"We went house to house in both the villages and collected money. It has cost us around seventy thousand rupees," Khan said as a group of villagers agreed in unison.

To watch the bridge take shape, playful children gathered around as village elders wearing traditional attires in anticipation sat on opposite sides of the footbridge.

"We have relatives in the village on the other side," Gulzar Ahamd Khan, another villager, said. Koota Sathri, according to the locals, consists of around 150 households. Sumlar is comparatively a larger village.

"Sometimes we are not able to reach for final rites if anyone from the village dies," he added. Besides these concerns, villagers have agricultural lands on either side, and schoolchildren were also forced to travel long distances even as some villagers claimed funds were intentionally lapsed for the bridge due to some "vested interests".

Then an idea to construct the bridge with "help from donations" gathered pace after four villagers formed a youth association headed by retired police official, Shamas u Din Khan. It has a strength of 150 persons now.

With the footbridge, the villagers' wait of "ten years has come to an end", Mohammad Yousuf Meelo, another villager said at the sight when women from the other side of the village crossed over the footbridge.

Villagers shared that the earlier footbridge at the same place made of wood was washed away in floods in 2014 never to be reconstructed until now.

"Our elders and officials at the helm never reached a consensus due to some unknown reasons," one villager said, adding "we needed a simple footbridge to ease our daily problems, but they made it appear like a big deal."

Shamas U Din said the association collected 200 to 300 rupees from the villagers, with villagers saying that the army also assisted them with the material which was lying at Bapura village near the camp kilometers away.

"From transportation to labour and welding, it has cost us 70000 rupees," Khan Turk said.

The villagers say the bridge will "keep us connected, which is important to us."

"It was important to have a footbridge here as this is a centrally located place," Rizwan Khan, another youth, added. Moreover, the villagers said they would get "some relief as we are required to walk longer distances" on both sides.