Man who moved mountain lost battle against cancer

Aug 18: A man only with a hammer-and-chisel, who moved a mountain alone since last 22 years to bring his village closer to the Bihar’s capital Patna, had lost his battle against cancer on Friday in New Delhi.

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Dashrath Manjhi, 78, died on Friday at AIIMS in New Delhi where he was being treated of gall bladder cancer since July-end. He has left a son and a daughter behind him.

Dashrath Manjhi, a mountain man could not fulfill his target as death defeated him in the midway who never loose from the Rock Mountains. But, now forest department has cleared a proposal for laying pitch road that had been founded by Manjhi.

Dashrath Manjhi spent his 22 years to figurine a 1.5 km-long, 22-feet-wide and 30-ft-high pathway through a hill in Gaya district to reduced 19-km distance between his Gahlaur village and Wazirganj.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has announced a state funeral for him. Besides this in his honour a road and a hospital will be set up at Manjhi's village that would be named on him. Though Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar has expressed sorrow on his death. “He would not be there to lay the foundation stone when the project completed, however, his story will continue to be the source of inspiration for many in the nation.”, said Nitish. The state government bore the cost of treatment of Manjhi.

Manjhi decided to make a passage 22 years before when his wife slipped off the rocks while getting food for him as he worked in a field beyond the hill and broke her ankle. He appealed a lot to the administration, but there was no hearing. Finally Dashrath decided to do a Herculean effort to cut off the mountains alone. Despite of being a very poor farmer, he took an extremely brave decision. He sold his goats to buy hammer and chisel and began almost impossible task. Since then he continued to fulfill his target till suffering from severe gall bladder cancer.