Bari: Despite being located in a flood-prone area such as Bari subdivision in Jajpur district, the office of the water resources department junior engineer (JE) of Jaraka division has been lying closed for long.
With the onset of rains and no official visiting the office, people are living in fear of possible flooding.
According to sources, with an objective of protecting the residents of panchayats on the southern side of Brahmani river, river embankments were constructed on both sides of Brahmani and Birupa at an estimated cost of Rs 14.021 lakh in financial year 2011-12.
There is also a JE office at the site. While a JE is supposed to carry out checks on the condition of the embankments, no official visits the office making it a haunted house. The office premise is now covered with wild bush.
As a lone staff, Debendra Nayak, the watchman of the office, had been taking care of the office till 2017 when he retired. Since then the post is also lying vacant.
At a time when the government claims to lay emphasis on strengthening river embankments to avert possible flood situation, the utter neglect meted out to the office send a wrong signal, said a local.
“The office building has turned out to be a den of antisocial elements. Due to the lackadaisical attitude of the concerned officials, the purpose for which the building was constructed has not been fulfilled and the money spent on the construction of the building has gone down the drain.”
When contacted, Bari JE Sibananda Panigrahi said that the lack of infrastructure makes it impossible for any official to work there. Many a time the matter was taken up with the higher officials but nothing ever came out of it.
PNN
