Dasmantpur: In Koraput district’s A. Malkangiri panchayat there is a village called Putamari. A mere peep into this village is enough to know how basic facilities are still elusive for the people here even decades after Independence.
Over 300 people live here in the Adivasi Sahi and Gauda Sahi. These people have no communication, health and safe drinking water facilities.
Due to the absence of a motorable road all government schemes seem to be avoiding this village forcing villagers to go to other states for work.
In an emergency no ambulance can enter the village as it doesn’t have a pucca road. The villagers have to take patients on slings for four km up to Puki Chhak, from where they can hire vehicles to the Koraput district headquarters hospital.
In the case of expectant mothers the situation is serious. “There are many examples of mothers delivering midway while being taken on slings,” villagers Mangala Saunta, Rama, Rupa and Jarnabati said.
The villagers who make a living from podu chasa (slash and burn cultivation) have not yet get any work order under Awas Yojana though their names have been registered in the Gram Sabha and Pallisabha.
Drinking water is another critical problem. About 20 years ago the village received two tube wells which are now defunct. The villagers are forced to use water from a nearby creek for drinking and daily chores.
Alleging that elected members visit the village only once in a blue moon, the villagers warned that if their problems are not solved they would boycott the 2019 general elections.
Block Development Officer Sukanta Majhi said he would visit the village to see for himself the problems and steps would be taken accordingly. Block vice president and MP’s representative Narayan Bisoi said they also would visit the village soon.
PNN
