In Uttarakhand, MS Dhoni’s village still awaits road, medicines

ALMORA: As a biopic released on Friday narrates the journey of Mahendra Singh Dhoni from a railway ticket-checker to World Cup-winning cricket captain, far from the global limelight, his ancestral village still lurks in the dark and waits to be connected to the rest of the world.
Lwali, 55 km from the district headquarters of Almora, is a small village of just 35 residents.This is where Dhoni’s uncle Ghanpat Singh Dhauni lives with his wife and daughter-in-law. The village is located in Jainti tehsil, which is also the closest roadhead if residents of Lawli want to go to the market, attend a college or have to be treated at a hospital.
However, there is no road from Lwali to Jainti. For residents, it is a steep 4km climb to Jainti for every necessity, from rice to medicine.
All the residents of Lwali have the surname ‘Dhauni’, although the India captain spells his surname differently.
Ghanpat Singh, 66, a retired teacher, recalls that after MSD led his team to the World Cup in 2011, the district administration, from the sub-divisional magistrate to clerks, descended on his house to congratulate the family.
“The then chief minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, announced that a road would be built from Jainti to Lwali. Five years later, there is still no road. In my life I have heard only announcements by the chief minister and the Uttarakhand assembly speaker, but haven’t witnessed any action by the government,” says Ghanpat Singh.
There is another road from Lamgarha, 22 km away, built under PMGSY, which ends half-a-kilometre from Lwali, but no one takes that road. “Lamgarha is in another block. LPG cylinders are delivered in Chaikhan near Lamgarha. Each family pays an extra Rs 50 to the driver to deliver it to where the road ends, from where we carry it home on our shoulders,” adds Ghanpat Singh.
The retired teacher says a lot of reporters disturb him with questions about Dhoni’s childhood. “I receive a lot of phone calls from different newspapers asking about him. How should I know? They should visit Dhoni’s house in Ranchi instead of calling me,” he adds.
Dhoni last visited in 2004 after being selected for the India team, but his father keeps visiting. “My brother last came home in 2011 when my younger son was married. But we keep visiting Ranchi to meet the family,” adds Ghanpat Singh.
The absent road is not the only problem. Health services aren’t very effective either. The nearest primary health centre is in Jainti but often doesn’t have a doctor. “The lone doctor is often sent to Lamgarha and other places. There are no medicines either,” says Ayaar Singh Dhauni.
The health centre has ultrasound and X-ray machines but no technician to operate them. “Patients go to Almora and Haldwani, nearly 160 km away, during emergencies,” says Ayaar Singh. The few crops Lwali residents grow are destroyed by wild boars and monkeys.