Malkangiri: Horses are the only mode of transport to reach 40 inaccessible villages in Ralegada panchayat under Chitrakonda block in this district.
Ralegada panchayat comprises 52 villages out of which 40 are out of bounds due to lack of good roads or bridges.
People here continue to live a life of neglect and deprivation and earn their living by carrying out paddy and arhur cultivation on hilly terrains. They do not know about various agricultural schemes.
Some of them have job cards but they do not get work for 100 days. As a result, they depend on neighbouring Andhra Pradesh for fulfillment of their basic needs while the government in the neighbouring state is trying to lure them by providing benefits like free education to their students
These villages are completely unreachable and even walking to these areas involves a lot of risk and pain.
In such a situation, horses have come in very handy in ferrying people and goods to these villages. Many panchayats in the district are way behind in education, health, transport, drinking water, agriculture and irrigation facilities.
One has to walk on uneven roads and hilly terrains to reach these villages where horses come to the rescue of people. One has to hire a horse to carry goods and people to these villages
This is so as developmental schemes implemented by the government still remain out of bounds for this panchayat. The panchayat can be reached by boats from Chitrakonda to Janbai and through Ghodaghat– the place from where the real ordeal of people begins. The Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) started construction of a bridge at Ghodaghat after repeated demand by the residents. But work on the bridge was suddenly stopped after construction of two columns on the pretext of Maoist menace.
The residents here are deprived of facilities except for the rice and pension they receive under the government scheme. However, getting rice and pensions are not easy for them. They have to walk 15km to reach Sarukabandh for their rice quota while the children walk till Ghoadaghat to get a boat to Chitrakonda for study.
Health workers posted in the area hardly visit these villages. A sling is the only thing one has to depend on if one falls ill. An ailing person is first carried till Ghodaghat on a sling from where he is taken to a hospital in an ambulance.
When contacted, former Kudumulugumma block chairperson Tupuram Tangulu, former Ralegada sarpanch Kamalu Hantal and villagers Krushna Pangi, Madhav Pangi alleged that they have submitted many memorandums to political leaders and the district administration for basic facilities but all these pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
ITDA, PA RamaKrushna Ganda said the bridge work will resume soon. Once it is constructed the problem of the panchayat will be solved. PNN
