Swimming across Gaula river to reach her school is a routine affair for 15-year-old Gudiya Sammal.
And just like the class X student, other villagers of Pestola and Udwa cross the river on a daily basis to reach markets, schools and hospitals situated on the other side of the river in Haida Khan in Uttarakhand’s Nainital district, in the absence of a bridge on the eight-km stretch.
After several protests by the odd 1,200 villagers in demand of a bridge, Haldwani based activist Gurvinder Singh Chadha filed a complaint with the Uttarakhand Human Rights Commission (UHRC) last year.
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