Harichandanpur: Even after 70 years since Independence, many hilly and tribal pockets in this block of Keonjhar district have remained as backward as before, in the absence of basic facilities.
Chaturisahi near Hayarpur village is a case in point. Communication is a major problem for inhabitants of this village with river Remal acting as a stumbling block.
People in the village still depend on pits and streams to meet their water needs. The scene of people carrying sick persons on cots and crossing the river is a common sight, as the village doesn’t have an all-weather road.
Under these conditions, the villagers risk their lives every day negotiating the hilly terrain and crossing the river.
This correspondent during a visit to the village found some people carrying a patient on a cot and crossing the river while a group of women were taking water in pitchers from a pit.
“The lone tube well in the village has been lying defunct. We have no way but to drink water from pits. Many are affected by diseases due to consumption of the contaminated water,” some women of the group lamented.
Besides, the villagers are deprived for government welfare scheme benefits. Let alone a school, the government has not even set up an Anganwadi centre here. Children have to trek 2 km on the hilly terrain to reach the nearest school.
In rainy season, when the river is in spate, the children skip school for days together while the problems of the villagers get compounded as they fail to venture out of their homes.
Gobinda Mohant, a villager, was swept away in the river in 2005 while Naba Soren had also met with watery grave in 2011.
Lack of livelihood sources is another problem confronting the locals. The tribals are deprived of wage employment opportunities under MGNREGS.
The villagers said if the government lays an all-weather road to the village and constructs a bridge across the river, many of their problems will be sorted out.
They will take up the issues with the collector, the villagers said. PNN
