People of Sarail Trapped Between Rhetoric of Development and Empty Promises.

Taslima Khandaker Nusrat, Sarail, B.Baria. MPs come, Ministers come. With microphones in hand, they shower promises. "A tide of development will come, the face of Sarail will change." But years go by, governments change, the promises do not. In Sarail Upazila of Brahmanbaria-2 parliamentary constituency, the wheel of fate of the people is still stuck on broken roads. The touch of development seems to be forbidden here. A visit to the field shows that the condition of most of the roads in Sarail is so deplorable that calling them "death traps" instead of roads would not be wrong. Sarail-Araihazar Road: The Monsoon Ordeal. This 14-kilometer road gets submerged every monsoon. At that time, communication between Sarail and Araihazar is cut off. Thousands of people wade through water and travel by boat, risking their lives. Sarail-Brahmanbaria Road: 20 km of Suffering. This main road connecting to the district headquarters is in a dilapidated state. Full of potholes and broken. The Roads and Highways Department is talking about a Tk 235 crore project, saying a tender will be called. But no one knows when it will happen. Unpaved Road in the Union: 54 Years of Neglect. The 2-kilometer road in Dhitpur South village of Shahbazpur Union has not been paved even after 54 years of independence. Locals collect their own money and fill it with bricks to manage travel somehow. What the Authorities Say vs. Reality? Road Transport and Bridges Minister Sheikh Rabiul Alam told Parliament that the 28 km Brahmanbaria-Sarail section of the Cumilla-Brahmanbaria highway is being upgraded to 4 lanes. The work is being "expedited." But locals ask: What good is a highway if the roads inside the villages remain death traps? "They say this and that with their mouths. But there is nothing when it comes to work. The touch of development does not reach us," said several aggrieved residents angrily. The people of Sarail have only one appeal to MP Rumin Farhana of Brahmanbaria-2 and to the local representatives — not promises, we want work this time. Otherwise, these broken roads will prove that development is limited only to paper and speeches.