Rayagada: Hundreds of local residents including the students and job aspirants in Gudari Notified Area Council (NAC) of Rayagada district demanded bus service from the civic area to Bhubaneswar, Friday.
“Students who wish to pursue their higher studies, youths who aspire jobs and have to attend interviews including several others who are working in the state capital face utter difficulties due to the non-availability of direct bus service from Gudari town of Rayagada district,” many local residents rued.
“We had recently launched a signature campaign in this regard and there was a huge response from local residents. We will get down to roads if our demand will not be met soon,” they added.
The campaign was started by a local outfit named ‘Youths for Change’ and it is still underway. The outfit also raised demand for expansion of Gunupur-Therubali railway line. It has insisted that direct bus service should be provided, at the earliest, from Gudari town to Jeypore of Odisha and Visakhapatnam of Andhra Pradesh.
Local patients in critical condition depend on Visakhapatnam for better healthcare, in the absence of direct bus service.
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According to a source, Gudari town was given NAC status in 1972. Though a tribal populated area, it has a number of educated youths.
Gudari block consists of nine panchayats. Usually, residents catch a bus either from Padmapur or Gumuda to travel to Bhubaneswar. The two localities are about 20 Km away from the NAC.
The last bus available from Gudari town to Padmapur in Rayagada district is at 5.00pm and the bus coming from Bhubaneswar reaches Padmapur at around 4.00pm. Similarly, the first bus from Padmapur to Gudari starts moving at 7.00pm, every day. As a result, people coming from Bhubaneswar have to wait for around three hours at Padmapur for the bus to ply to Gudari town.
Agitations will be staged in the days ahead and would continue till their goal is achieved, the residents warned. A memorandum containing the signatures will be submitted soon to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik through Gudari block development officer (BDO) to provide direct bus service from the town to Bhubaneswar.
Another memorandum containing the signatures will be submitted to Railway Minister for the railway line expansion, they informed.
Notably, the demand was raised earlier before Gunupur BJD MLA Raghunath Gomango, but to no avail. It has now intensified again with recent announcement of elections to urban local bodies (ULBs).
Several noted persons in the town including BDO Nrusingha Charan Sethy, tehsildar Bharati Devi, IIC Sanjaya Kumar Nayak, medical officer Arupananda Behera and local political leaders have signed in support of the campaign.
PNN
