Chopper victim’s village gets new road

Repair done to enable CM Chouhan to attend last rites

Bhopal: A part of a road leading to the native village of Army man Jitendra Kumar, who died on December 8 in the helicopter crash that killed CDS General Bipin Rawat and 11 others, in Sehore in Madhya Pradesh was repaired hurriedly with stones and soil as several dignitaries, including CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, were scheduled to attend the last rites on Sunday.

When Kumar left to join duty on November 9 from Dhamanda, some 65 kilometres from capital Bhopal, the road, which was built some ten years ago, was almost fully disintegrated, officials on condition of anonymity said on Sunday. Sehrore incidentally is the home district of CM Chouhan and Dhamanda boasts of at least 25 Army personnel, they added.

Villagers said men and machines worked overtime to repair a part of the 2.5 kilometre approach road to the village from the arterial Bhopal-Indore highway, with stones and soil flattened to make the stretch motorable for the time being.

Former Dhamana sarpanch Laxmi Chand Itavia confirmed the development and said he had petitioned the district collector for road repairs some seven months ago. “I think we’ll get a repaired road shortly. It was built some 10 years ago but went into disrepair a couple of years ago and people wouldn’t use it on night for fear of meeting with accidents,” said Itavia, adding that the deceased soldier was his nephew’s son. The last rites of Naik Jitendra Kumar, the PSO of Gen. Bipin Rawat, were cremated with full military honours in Dhamanda Sunday, with his one-and-half-year-old son performing the last rites seated on the lap of a kin. —(PTI)