Post News Network
Thakurmunda, June 28: Even as over six decades have passed since independence, Ranibhola and Dhirol villages of Hatigoda panchayat under Thakurmunda block in Mayurbhanj district remain cut off from the rest of the world throughout the rains every year.
In the absence of a bridge across river Dhirol, residents have to suffer a lot of inconveniences. They do not go out of their villages to buy essential commodities. Even studies of students get affected, while taking patients to any hospital becomes impossible.
Dhirol village is just three kilometre from Hatigoda and from there Ranibhola village is four kilometre away. Ranibhola is at the foothill of a hill and inhabited by 500 people. Most of the residents belong to tribal Kolha community. A few Gond and Santhal community families also live in the village.
While in dry season, residents of both the villages easily go out of the village as the river flows below the knee, their problems begin with the arrival of rains.
“In rainy season, the river flows to its brim and children stop going to school across the river,” Madhusmita Nayak, a class III student of Dhirol, lamented.
According to Jena Say, a resident of Asankud village, teachers fail to turn up at Ranibhola primary school when the river is flooded. “And the school is bound to be closed. None from the village or outside come in or go out,” he said.
Situation worsens further for people who go out of the village and remain stranded outside, unable to cross the river. Bahadula Lohar, Tapan Nayak and Parama Nayak, living across the river, said the people who cannot return to their villages take shelter in their houses. “We have to feed them till floodwater
recedes in the river,” said Bahadula.
Many villagers said they have taken up the issue with the district collector, local political leaders and the block
authorities, but no steps have been taken in this regard.