Villagers in West Burdwan’s Kanksa had to walk 1.5km on a squishy mud road with a bleeding woman and her newborn son on a stretcher to reach an ambulance parked on NH2 on Tuesday.

The ambulance driver could not enter College Para area of Rajbandh village, barely 15km from mall-studded Durgapur town, because the mud road, worsened by rain the past two days, was not motorable.

A video clip of men carrying the woman and her newborn on the stretcher surfaced on the Internet, prompting the local Trinamul-run rural body to announce speedy repair of the road on Wednesday.

Rajani Sarkar, 26, who was in an advanced state of pregnancy, started getting labour pains early Tuesday. Her husband Dilip, an iron shutter door mechanic, called an ambulance to take Rajani to the Durgapur subdivisional hospital.

But the ambulance driver approaching the village from NH2 was forced to park his vehicle on the highway some 1.5km from the village.

“I feared the tyres may get stuck in the soft mud road,” said the driver.

Rajani gave birth at home with the help of some village women but bled profusely. As her bleeding did not stop, an alarmed Dilip called up the driver, this time for a stretcher.

Some village youths came to rescue and four of them took Rajani and her newborn to the ambulance on NH2. Finally, the mother and infant went to the Kanksa block primary health centre. Doctors on Wednesday said both were stable.

However, the incident sparked resentment among the villagers, mostly belonging to the Matua Maha Sangh. The Matuas — a Namasudra community, a majority of whom migrated from East Pakistan — have submitted a deputation to the Amlajora gram panchayat demanding immediate repair of the road.

“If anyone falls ill, there is no option to take him to hospital in an ambulance, the road is so bad,” said Swapan Gosai, a village elder. “We can hardly use two-wheelers. If the mother or the baby had died, who would have been responsible?”

Chayanika Pal, chief of Amlajora gram panchayat, said a part of the village and the land needed to construct a metal road belonged to the railways and the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC). “We requested the BDO to take up the matter with the DVC and railway officials. We will construct a proper road from the highway to the village,” said Pal.

The incident comes soon after chief minister Mamata Banerjee launched the road repair scheme, Pathashree Abhijan, during her last week’s administrative review meeting in north Bengal. Under it, more than 7,000 stretches of roads comprising 12,000km across Bengal will be repaired in a time-bound manner.

But Rajbandh — with 130 families, including 285 voters — seem cynical. “No neta visits us unless there is an election. We are fed up,” said Gosai.