Jeypore: Deprived of basic amenities, nearly 500 people, surrounded by a river and hills, of three villages under Nandapur block in Koraput district have been leading pitiable lives for years. The residents believe that they live on some islands belonging to Orissa.
Sabun, Upar Sabun and Lamandur, three villages under Bilaput panchayat are located near Machkund reservoir. The villagers solely depend on country boats to get basic facilities like health and education and for contact with the outside world.
People of Sabun and Upar Sabun have to first trek a hill to reach a river ghat from where they use a boat to reach Lamandur. Cut off from the rest of the world by the water released from Jalaput reservoir, the residents of these three villages maintain good relations among themselves to help each other at the time of need.
Though 130 families live in these villages, they don’t have a proper road for connectivity. There is a hydro-electric project at Jalaput, but the residents have no access to its power. The administration has done its job by putting up some solar-powered lights. The villagers are also deprived of safe drinking water.
An ASHA (accredited social health activist) is considered to be a saviour for the residents as she ferries critical patients and expecting mothers to Lamtaput in a boat.
The administration has provided eight country boats to the villages for meeting their daily needs. While the men and women of the villages travel in boats to shop at a weekly market, the school kids are also taken in boats to the other end of the water body from where they walk their way to a nearby school.
For the past several years, officials and politicians have been making promises of development but nothing has materialised, villagers alleged.
Collector Anupam Saha said the administration is aware of the plight of the people. He would take measures to sort out their problem, Saha added. PNN
