Jajpur: It has been seven years since the hilltop Nagada villages under Chingudipala panchayat in Sukinda block of Jajpur district hit the headlines for the death of children owing to malnutrition. The state government claims to have brought about rapid development in the field of healthcare, education, communication and power supply facilities in Nagada villages. However, not much has changed if we take a closer look at the lives of people living in nearby towns.
Reports said that a road is yet to be constructed to Tumuni and Guhiasal villages as people continue to travel on the hilly tracts to reach the villages. A disabled social activist Mantu Das took a tour of the villages by walking on the hilly tracts to get a taste of the life of the residents after reports were published in a premier Odia daily, May 7. Mantu walked through the hilly terrain and reached the Tumuni village where he met the family members of some Juang tribals. He returned and shot a memorandum containing a nine-point charter of demands to the principal secretary of the Rural Development Department demanding the development of Tumuni village.
On receipt of the letter, deputy secretary Shibaram Hembram directed the engineer-in-chief of the Rural Works department to prepare a report on bringing in development in Tumuni area. Meanwhile, a road has been constructed to Nagada three years after the malnutrition deaths. However, the residents of Tumuni and Guhiasal villages continue to live a cursed life of obscurity and drudgery.
According to ground zero reports of Mantu Das, over 280 people of 29 families reside in Tumuni village. A drinking water facility is yet to be available for which villagers continue to depend on the polluted water of a hilly stream. They are left without a drop of water when the hilly stream dries up during summer. Risking their lives, they walk through a dense forest to fetch water from a nearby village. The villagers often lose their lives or get critically injured while travelling through the forest to fetch water from the nearby village. Institutional delivery is a misnomer in this village due to a lack of communication facilities. The death of two pregnant women Kandiri Pradhan and Jatri Pradhan during delivery due to lack of necessary healthcare facilities are cases at this point. There exists a hospital nearby Kaliapani which is about 21 km from the village.
However, lack of awareness has deprived the villagers of availing the same. The village has an Anganwadi centre but the Anganwadi worker visits it once or twice a month. The Anganwadi centre, often remaining closed, has deprived the women and children in the villages of the benefits of government welfare schemes. There is a ration centre at Naliadaba which is about three to four km from the village.
However, the villagers do not visit the centre due to lack of communication facilities. Most of them have received a job card under the rural job scheme MGNREGS but they have failed to reap its benefit as a contractor Sanjay Mohanta has allegedly kept the cards with him and refused to return those.
Villagers Tankar Pradhan, Khetra Pradhan, Madhusudan Pradhan, Jamuni Pradhan, Odia Pradhan, Bitu Pradhan, Buduni Pradhan, Dina Pradhan, Dashumatia Pradhan, Subuni Pradhan and Machu Pradhan alleged they have demanded their cards back several times but in vain as the contractor threatens them whenever they raise the issue with him. This is indicative of serious irregularities plaguing the implementation of the Centre-sponsored rural job scheme in the area. The area is also home to large numbers of dropouts as there is no primary school in the village and the nearest school is situated at a faraway place. Das has demanded before the state government to ensure drinking water supply, a good road, holding of regular health camps, keeping the Anganwadi centre open every day, recovery of the job cards of the poor villagers from the contractor and door-to-door supply of rations. When contacted, Gyana Ranjan Nayak, executive engineer of the rural works division in Jajpur said that he is not aware of the construction of any road to Tumuni and Guhiasal villages and can only speak on the issue after making a proper enquiry
