Overview

• For more than a year, Khaddi Khurd village in Sidhi district has lacked a paved access road, forcing pregnant women to traverse muddy terrain to reach health centres.
• This week, Sidhi MP Rajesh Mishra suggested that expectant mothers could simply be picked up a week before their due dates instead of building the promised road.
• Public Works Department minister Rakesh Singh pointed to procedural requirements and limited budgets as barriers to acting on every social media plea for rural roads.
• Local influencer Leela Sahu reignited the campaign with viral appeals highlighting the risks to maternal health and the gap between political promises and delivery.
• After delivering her baby, Sahu intends to travel to New Delhi to meet Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and demand concrete action on the stalled project.