Nuapada: Even as many people of Salihagada, a sleepy village in the district, had fought valiantly with British police in the freedom struggle, the residents now lead a life of deprivation, a report said.
While the village lacks a proper approach road to the memorial post built in the memory of freedom fighters, their successors are in a miserable state, it was learnt.
According to reports, people of this village had launched a massive stir in 1930 protesting arbitrary imposition of taxes by the British government when the entire nation took part in Mahatma Gandhi-led Dandi March. At that time, British police attacked hundreds of people September 30 of that year when they assembled in Salihagada to plan the mode of protest to support the salt march.
Armed with traditional weapons, men and women of the village fought with the police. According to historians, the police picked up 28 persons and put them in Raipur jail. They were tortured and released after several days. This was the first non-cooperation movement in Orissa, opined the historians.
After Independence, Anup Singh Deo, the then king of Khariar, set up a memorial pillar to recall the contributions of the freedom fighters. Their successors had been organizing programmes in the memory of participants of the freedom movement. However, the government never granted any assistance to such functions, regretted the locals.
The then Collector Satyabrata Sahoo reconstructed the pillar in 1997 as it was in a dilapidated state. Though construction of a wall was undertaken around the pillar at that time, it is yet to be completed.
The residents have no access to basic amenities like water and electricity while the village lacks an all weather road to reach the memorial post. The area has turned a safe haven for stray cattle and dogs.
District-level programmes are held regularly at the headquarters while the administration has conveniently forgotten the contributions of Salihagada residents, locals said.
“Even as our great grandfather fought with the police during freedom struggle, we live in penury,” said Baishakhu Ganda’s successor Bhubelal Ganda.
The soil of Salihagada has produced many a freedom fighter but the present administration fails to acknowledge their contributions, lamented Bolu Patel, a villager. Hupendra Sahoo, the president of Saheed Smruti Yuva Parishad, said members of the organisation have been organising annual functions without any government help to keep the memory of the freedom fighters alive. The state and the district administration should look into the matter, he added.
PNN
