Represented by stalwarts for decades, Sasaram continues to lack basic facilities

Tengari Chero, 66, of Makari Khoh village under Bihar’s Sasaram Lok Sabha constituency was 18 and newly married in 1978 when the then Bihar irrigation minister Sachchidanand Singh ordered a survey for a dam and reservoir on the Suara river for irrigating the region’s parched fields. The dam held out hope for the residents of the drought-hit area. “We were happy our children would not die of hunger,” Chero said.

Forty engineers and technicians camped in the area for over a year in the late 1970s for a survey. The project soon floundered.

Chhedi Paswan, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Parliament member from Sasaram, visited the site in January 2016 and assured its completion. Paswan retained the seat in 2019 but the completion of the dam remains a forgotten promise.

Bandh Nirman Sangharsh Samiti coordinator Suresh Singh said they have been agitating for the construction of the dam, which will irrigate about 30,000 hectares of unirrigated lands in hilly Bhagwanpur, Chainpur, Chand and Durgawati. “It could not be built in 46 years. Only god knows if it will ever be built.”

Sasaram, which is known for its paddy production, lacks basic facilities such as electricity, healthcare, irrigation, and quality education even as political stalwarts represented it for decades.

The late former deputy Prime Minister Jagjivan Ram represented Sasaram in Lok Sabha for over 30 years from 1952 to 1984. His daughter Meira Kumar won the seat in 2004 and 2009 before she lost to Paswan in 2014 and 2019.

Allies Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal won five of the six assembly seats under the Sasaram Lok Sabha seat in 2020. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)’s Jama Khan, who won the sixth seat, has since joined Janata Dal (United) and became a minister.

Congress’s Manoj Kumar is hoping to wrest the Sasaram Lok Sabha seat, who goes to the polls on June 1, on the back of the support of Yadavs, Muslims, Mahadalits, and Kushwahas.

Shivesh Ram is hoping to retain the seat for the BJP. He said the region now has better roads, bridges, health facilities, and welfare and development schemes. “This time [BJP-led] NDA [National Democratic Alliance] will have a clean sweep.”