Dehradun, Oct 24 Residents of the Devshal-Kotheda village in Uttarakhand’s Rudraprayag district staged a protest on Saturday, demanding the construction of a long-overdue road. They have warned that if no concrete action is taken within 15 days, they will boycott the upcoming assembly elections.
The locals, whose village is located near the Guptkashi helipad—close to Kedarnath—allege that despite announcements made in 2015 by the then-Chief Minister Harish Rawat and the local MLA at the time, the late Shailarani Rawat, no tangible progress has been made on the road’s construction.
According to the villagers, the project—a proposed road spanning approximately 2.5 km—is currently caught in a bureaucratic impasse between the Public Works Department (PWD) and the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).
They noted that the site has been surveyed 15 to 20 times, yet the project remains stalled due to issues such as pending forest clearances and a lack of coordination between the relevant departments.
The villagers questioned why these issues cannot be resolved through better inter-departmental coordination, given that the solutions lie within the purview of government agencies.
Anshuman Devshali, a local, stated that the road construction would significantly improve connectivity for 150 to 200 families in the village and create new employment opportunities.
He emphasised that the villagers are no longer interested in mere announcements or surveys; they want to see actual construction work begin.
Gram Pradhan Shubham Devshali, who participated in the protest, explained that the road was initially sanctioned under the PWD but was later transferred to the PMGSY, under the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD).
He added that the PMGSY claims the PWD left certain tasks incomplete, while the PWD maintains that those specific responsibilities fall under the scope of the PMGSY.
Congress leader and former Kedarnath MLA Manoj Rawat stated that, despite the announcement of hundreds of road projects in the state and the issuance of official government orders, work has yet to commence due to the lack of forest land transfer and financial approval.
He added that the Congress will soon launch a campaign regarding these announcements and will raise this issue in the upcoming assembly elections next year.
(PTI News)
