Pune Villagers Carry 90-Year-Old Through Slush Due to Govt Apathy, No Road to Hamlet Even in 2025
Pune/Bhor, 16th July 2025: In a shameful reflection of government negligence and infrastructural apathy, residents of Shindewadi hamlet in Bhor taluka’s Mhasar Budruk were forced to carry a 90-year-old woman in a makeshift stretcher for three kilometres through mud and slush, just to get her basic medical care after she suffered a paralytic stroke.
The incident took place on Monday in Shindewadi, a remote settlement nestled deep in the Varandha Ghat region, around 80 km from Pune city. The woman, Jaibai Shinde, was finally taken to a hospital in Bhor, 22 km away, after villagers braved treacherous terrain, torrential rain, and a complete absence of motorable roads.
“There was no option. We carried her in a doli through ankle-deep slush. This is the state of our so-called progress,” said local sarpanch Eknath Masurkar, highlighting the continued struggle for basic infrastructure in the region. “We’ve pleaded with the administration for years. No road, no ambulance, and no political will.”
Despite repeated appeals to the Bhor tehsil administration, residents say nothing has been done to provide reliable road connectivity to Shindewadi, which lies about 3 km from the main square of Mahsar Budruk village. Every monsoon, roads are washed away, leaving dozens of hamlets, like Shindewadi, completely cut off. There are 25 families in the village.
“This is not the first time,” said Baban Shinde, one of the villagers who helped carry Jaibai. “We’ve lost precious lives — women in labour, the elderly in distress — just because they couldn’t reach a hospital in time. Are we not citizens of this country?”
The nearest primary health sub-centre is a staggering 15 km away in Apti. A bus from Bhor goes there three times a day.
Another resident, Sanjay Shinde, didn’t hold back. “The tehsil officials wake up only when media covers these stories. The roads are never inspected before the monsoon. We are abandoned. Every year, we rebuild paths with our own hands. What is the administration doing?”
When contacted, Tehsildar Rajendra Lagan admitted, “We will inspect the road and instruct authorities to begin work soon.” However, he failed to provide any timeline or concrete action plan.
Meanwhile, Block Development Officer Kiran Dhanawade, responsible for rural road maintenance, remained unreachable despite multiple calls and messages.
In 2025, when India talks of smart cities, expressways, and bullet trains, the people of Shindewadi are still living in the margins — where carrying a sick elderly woman for hours through rain and muck is not a rare ordeal, but a recurring one.
Until the administration delivers on its basic responsibility, the villagers of Bhor will continue to bear the burden — quite literally — of an indifferent system.
