Villagers in Sindh struggle to rebuild their boulevard of broken dreams

In Kamber Shahdadkot, one road connecting 100 villages has become unfit to travel

LARKANA: Over the last decade, the Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government has claimed to have spent billions of rupees on developing the road network in the province. Not much is there to show for all the expenditure, though.

According to the Sindh government's data released by the finance department, Rs25 billion were allocated for the development and refurbishment of roads in fiscal year, 2017-2018. The government claims that 90% of the funds have been utilised.



"The Works and Services Department has completed 205 schemes in the annual development programme, 2017-2018, for 1,728 kms of roads," the chief minister had claimed in the budget speech, earlier this year.

In Kamber Shahdadkot, a traditional stronghold of the party for several decades, the condition of the road network paints a dismal picture. Take one main road in the district for example, which connects almost 100 villages and was quite well-travelled until it became unfit for traffic.

What remains of the asphalt surface is a mixture of potholes and ditches that have resulted in the almost complete suspension of traffic for the last three months.

Earlier this week, residents of various villages including Thorhi Bijar, Drigh Soomar Chandio, Bohar, Gharhi Kartiyo, Bhangar Acha and Ghailo Khoso protested in front of the deputy commissioner's office in a bid to divert the officials' attention toward their plight. No one seemed to bat an eye. "For the last 35 years, no one has spent a single penny on the road," Inamul Haq Tunio told local media persons at the protest. "It is hardly an eight-kilometre stretch of road from Ben Sharif to Ghari Kartiyo.



A broken culvert on this road has forced local transporters to stop plying buses," he added. According to Tunio, residents of almost a 100 villages have been disconnected from Kamber Town, which is hardly 12 kilometres away. "In case of emergency, taxis charge a huge amount, which is not possible for the poor to pay."

The protesters complained that they had even approached the elected representatives, but all in vain. "Aamir Magsi is the MNA from our area. He has visited us twice over the last decade - both times, as part of his electioneering efforts," said one elderly villager, who asked not to be named. "During the campaign, they again promised to build this eight- kilometre stretch, but no one is even willing to meet us now."

Nawab Sardar Ahmed Chandio, who was elected to the provincial assembly from the area, has not been seen in his constituency since.

Saeed Ahmed, who hails from Thorhi Bijar village, accused the lawmakers of corruption and nepotism in the award of contracts. "The corruption can be measured from the fact that Rs1.5 million were allocated for CC blocks in our village," said Ahmed. "The tenders have been awarded several months ago, but there is no work to show for it."

Ahmed appealed to the PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to look into the matter. "We don't demand anything personal. No incentive has been given to us for years," he said. "Our canals are not de-silted, the roads are broken, teachers and doctors are missing from schools. Above this all, today we have gathered on one point, which is the repair of our road without any delay," said Hafeez Totani, a young activist from the area.

Despite several attempts, the local MNA and MPA could not be reached for comment. However, engineer Shah Bux Khaskheli, who is affiliated with the public health engineering department, said that they have included the CC Block schemes for some villages and development work would be carried out soon.