Athmallik: Believe it or not, the people of this village in Angul district had been practicing a bizarre tradition for the last 200 years.
The tradition was that they would never have concrete roofs on their houses and buildings. However, this tradition was tweaked and the villagers for the first time had a concrete-roof for their recreational building (Kotha Ghar) constructed.
Beladula village under Athmallik block in Angul district created history February 10.
Why the village had been devoid of buildings with concrete roofs?
According to the villagers, Maa Raktamauli, the village deity, is worshipped in a house that has no roof. She has been worshipped here for generations. Beladula and Fakirpur are the two villages that are believed to be the villages of the deity. The villagers have a deep-rooted belief that since the deity herself lives in a roof-less house she gets angry with anyone if they construct concrete-roof houses. All the houses here have either pantile roofs, cement tile roofs or asbestos roofs.
They will become financially poor, suffer from various diseases and all sorts of calamities haunt their village if they displease the deity by having a house with concrete roof, the villagers believed.
Several incidents in the past have only made their superstitious beliefs stronger. This is the reason the villagers have never dared to construct concrete roofs for their houses. And, this is the reason why the schools and Anganwadi centres still don’t have concrete roofs.
Due to this, the major problem the village is experiencing is failure of schemes and programmes like Indira Awas, Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Even the toilets constructed under Swachh Bharat Mission don’t have roofs.
How the feat was achieved?
The block administration had been trying to get the villagers rid of the superstitious belief that the deity will get angry with them if they construct concrete roof for their houses. Several meetings were conducted in the village. Then some villagers psyched themselves up and expressed their desire to construct concrete roof for their houses.
And the first concrete roof was laid out on the village community hall. A good number of males and females cooperated in getting the roof constructed. While Baba Niranjan Das inaugurated the work by laying concrete mixture on the roof, the villagers welcomed the move with ululation and by blowing conches.
However, some wicked villagers had stolen Lord Jagannath’s idol from the village after snapping the power supply with an intention to cause fear among the villagers and stop the roof construction work. But their plan did not work and the roof was laid out.
According to Pratap Meher, a social activist, out of the 180 families that attended the village meeting, 70 voted for having concrete roofs for their houses. “We hope, the rest will follow suit,” he said.
“The villagers had been the victims of superstition. They used to believe that they would have to suffer problems or even die if they constructed concrete roof for their houses. The fear has finally been removed from their mind thanks to the BDO’s persistent efforts,” Gunanidhi Meher, a villager, observed.
When contacted, Athmallik BDO, Sanjay Kumar Acharya, said, “The tradition of not having roofs was age old. With the villagers no longer believing in this superstition, the picture of the village will soon bear a new look with buildings with roofs all around. The block has provided Indira Awas houses to 27 families. They not only get their houses constructed but also have concrete roofs on them.”
PNN
