Goshani: Development has been a far cry for the villagers of Dhansara village under this block in Gajapati district. The villagers living at the foot of a hill have been deprived of basic facilities like health, education, communication and drinking water.
“The state government has been implementing several steps to provide basic facilities to the remote villages, but our village seems to be not a fortunate one,” one of the villagers commented.
The hilly hamlet population stands at 200 from 25 families. Most of the families are BPL. In absence of drinking water facilities, they are forced to use contaminated water from sources like creeks for their daily chores owing to which they are sick round the year. Long ago, two tube wells were put up in the village. As of now, one is out of order and the other dispenses dirty water.
The villagers are yet to receive permanent land documents though they have been residing there for a long period. With no land documents, the youths are facing many problems in getting caste certificate and income certificate, making it further troublesome for them in availing higher education and other facilities.
Cyclone Titli had caused damage to many families. They are yet to get any compensation which is why the villagers are still living under polythene sheets and in dilapidated houses. In 1999, only three villagers were awarded houses under Indira Awas Yojana. Now, though many of the villagers have become eligible to get pucca houses under the yojana, the schemes like Indira Awas Yojana and Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana seem to be making a detour of the village, the villagers alleged.
There is an Anganwadi center in the village. But it is functioning on a temporary basis. Because of lack of education facilities and poor financial condition of the families, most of the children are here school dropouts.
Though MGNREGA guarantees 100 days of work in a year, here family heads and youths have never benefited from this facility. “In order to run our families, we have left with no option but leaving our village as migrant labourers,” said some villagers including Raman Sabar, Nrupesh Sabar and Sangita Sabar. We have knocked the administration’s doors on several occasions but to no avail, they alleged.
If the administration takes no steps to solve their problems in coming days, they will resort to agitation, the distressed villagers warned.
PNN
