Darbhanga, Bihar: Residents of a village in Bihar’s Darbhanga parliamentary constituency have barred elected representatives from using a bamboo bridge they have built through their own donations.

Villagers of Kamalpur-Brahmotar Ghat, a village under the Pirri panchayat of Bahadurpur block in Darbhanga, have announced a boycott of the Lok Sabha polls to protest the failure of people’s representatives to meet their age-old demand for a concrete bridge over the Kamla river.

“We have built a bamboo bridge, locally known as Chachri pul, over Kamla river last November by collecting donation of Rs300,000 (Dh18,238) from among the villagers and banned the people’s representatives from entering, to express [our] protest for their failures to fulfil a promise,” said Ashish Jha, a villager.

Darbhanga votes April 30. Jha said the bridge was thrown open to the public. However, the local MP and other legislators are barred from using it.

“In nearly five months, not a single people’s representative has dared to cross the bridge for fear of angry villagers,” Jha said.

Before they built the bamboo bridge, villagers used to travel across the river through a smaller bamboo bridge which was routinely washed away during monsoon season. Another villager, Jogi Yadav, said that residents of the village were tired of hearing false promises and assurances made by the people’s representatives for decades.

“After the people’s representatives failed, villagers have proved that they can build a makeshift bridge without government help.”

The bridge, which is 40 metres long and three metres wide, has provided connectivity to dozens of nearby villages also.

A legislator laid the foundation stone for the construction of a bridge nearly three decades ago but the project has not materialised to date.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has repeatedly claimed that his government has built over 12,000 bridges in the state in the last eight-and-a-half years to improve road connectivity.

This is opposed to the 375 bridges constructed in 30 years between 1975 and 2005, and Kumar is quick to remind the electorate during election time that his government has built a record number of bridges in the state.

His government has built bridges on major rivers such as the Ganga, the Gandak and the Koshi, with many more projects in the pipeline.