JASHORE — Roads across Chougacha municipality in Jashore district are in dire condition, with potholes filling with knee-deep water during rains and pedestrians struggling to navigate the mud, residents said.
Chougacha was upgraded to a municipality in 2004 under the then four-party alliance government, and development work spread quickly across the town. But infrastructure work stalled after the Awami League government took over in 2022 and came to a near-halt during the subsequent interim government, residents said. Several months into the current government’s term, no momentum has returned to municipal development.
The municipality has four major arterial roads, all now riddled with large potholes that residents say cause regular accidents and damage to vehicles. The key routes are Chougacha-Kotchandpur, Chougacha-Mahespur, Chougacha-Sharsha and Chougacha-Jhikargachha. While the Local Government Engineering Department has repaired sections of these roads outside the municipal boundary, the stretches within the municipality have become unfit for travel.
Residents said they have repeatedly petitioned the municipal authorities for repairs without result. Besides the four main roads, about 95% of streets in the municipal area — including the Pally Bidyut office road, Berbari Pachnamna road, Bakpara road, Biswaspara road and Karigarpara road — are in poor condition.
Azizur Rahman, an English lecturer at Pashapole College and a resident of the municipal town, said residents face extreme difficulty traveling because of the condition of the roads. “Accidents are happening regularly due to small and large potholes,” he said.
Local journalist M.A. Mannan said local newspapers have published numerous reports on the situation, detailing residents’ anger and difficulties.
M.A. Salam, president of the upazila BNP, said the condition of the municipal roads had become an embarrassment. “It is incomprehensible why these roads are not being repaired. The road leading to my own house is completely broken,” he said.
Maulana Golam Morshed, the upazila Jamaat-e-Islami amir, said the roads had become entirely unfit for travel. “Our demand is that the roads be repaired as quickly as possible,” he said.
Selim Reza Awliar, the municipal BNP president and a former municipal mayor, said the roads in Chougacha municipality had never been this bad and that residents were facing severe problems. He said repairs were urgently needed.
Former panel mayor Master Kamal Ahmed Biswas said the municipality had been left without leadership because there is no elected mayor, leaving roads and other sectors in disarray. He called for immediate repairs to the roads.
Ruhul Amin, an engineer at Chougacha municipality, said no work had been possible because the municipal administrator post had been vacant for an extended period. An administrator has recently taken charge, and steps will now be taken to repair the roads, he said.
G.M.A. Munib, the Chougacha assistant commissioner (land) and newly appointed municipal administrator, said he had only just joined the upazila. “I hope that road work and all other development work in the municipal town will begin in phases as soon as possible,” he said. He sought residents’ cooperation in all development work.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report