Two days ahead of the visit of Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, residents of Bhelupur, her ancestral village in Bihar, completed nearly a 4,000 sq feet long road in 48 hours by offering voluntary labour.
Persad-Bissessar is expected to visit the village in the Itarhi block of Buxar district, about 125 km from Patna, on Wednesday.
"Villagers from all castes and creeds joined hands enthusiastically to repair a road within two days to welcome the Trinidad and Tobago PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar," Buxar district magistrate Ajay Yadav said.
Yadav, who visited the village on Sunday to take stock of preparations and arrangements before the visit, told
rediff.com that the villagers are excited to welcome Persad-Bissessa. "I was told that the village road was in a bad condition, but villagers including women and children worked hard to repair it," he said.
Jagdish Mishra, a village elder, said that the road has been completed so that Persad-Bissessar
can comfortably visit her ancestral house.
Another villager Meera Devi said the mood in this remote village is upbeat and people are doing everything they can to impress the daughter of their soil.
Persad-Bissessar's great grandfather Ram Lakhan Mishra is said to have migrated as a Girmitiya labourer to Trinidad and Tobago, then a British colony in the Caribbean islands.
According to an official record send by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to the Bihar government, Ram Lakhan Mishra had left Bhelupur in 1889.
Officials from Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's office said Persad-Bissessar, the first woman PM of Trinidad and Tobago, will also meet her relatives in the village during her visit.
Bhelupur is among many Bihar villages that lack basic amenities like electricity, drinking water, infrastructure and health centre.