Residents plant rice seedlings on mud-choked Bogra road to protest years of neglect
Residents of Bogura’s Sherpur upazila staged a unique protest on Monday by planting rice seedlings in the mud of a severely dilapidated rural road, highlighting years of official inaction regarding the infrastructure. The protest occurred around 11:30 a.m. on the one-kilometer Arshail-Rajardighi road in Mirzapur union, where villagers expressed growing frustration over the impassable state of the thoroughfare.
The road serves as a vital artery for approximately seven villages, including Arshail, Makorkhola, and Rajardighi. Residents report that while the route is essential for daily transit, it remains neglected, with conditions deteriorating significantly during the monsoon season. Currently, the surface is buried under deep mud and standing water, which in some sections reaches knee-height, forcing residents to navigate hazardous conditions to meet basic needs.
According to local accounts, the road had previously seen minor improvements with brick carpeting, but the surface was subsequently destroyed by heavy trucks transporting soil. The route remains the only viable path for daily commuters, including an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 people who rely on it to transport agricultural products to market. Furthermore, students from four local educational institutions are frequently unable to attend classes during the rainy season, and families face critical delays when transporting the sick to the upazila health complex.
Mirzapur Union Parishad officials noted that a proposal to pave the road was submitted to the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) under the previous administration, but the project failed to secure approval following the government's collapse.
Local residents and farmers emphasized that the lack of infrastructure is inflating transportation costs for agricultural goods and posing a systemic barrier to local development. Responding to the protest, Mirzapur Union Parishad Chairman Zahidul Islam confirmed he is aware of the demonstration and the residents' grievances. He stated that the urgency of the road's development has been relayed to the upazila engineer and that he intends to formally present the issue at the upcoming upazila parishad coordination committee meeting.
