Koraput: Residents of Akashguda village complain of missing out on basic amenities despite the hamlet falling under Koraput municipality limits.
The village, home to 17 families with a population of 100, is a part of Ward 15 of the municipality. Most of the residents are daily labourers working in Koraput town, which is five km from the village. Locals said they are forced to depend on a dirty nullah for their drinking water requirements in the summer as the only well in the locality goes dry once the temperature rises. Road connectivity to the village is also abysmal.
“We have no option but to use the water from the nullah knowing all too well that people upstream use the nullah for a variety of purposes including defecation and washing clothes,” said Uday Chhati, a youth from the village.
The village is located just three km away from Sanabindiri on the Koraput-Rayagada highway. A narrow bitumen road of about one-and-half-kilometers was laid two years back but that is now in a precarious state, locals said. Though the other half of the stretch was levelled for road construction, it was not completed for some reason, causing a lot of problems for the commuters.
On the other hand, the civic body is using a large patch along the road as a dumping yard. Residents find it difficult to pass along the stretch as an extremely foul stench emanates from it due to animal carcasses and other wastes being dumped there regularly.
On the other hand, the authorities have shifted the only school of the village to Shanti Nagar, near Railway Colony citing shortage of students. The children of the village now have to cross a river to attend their classes in a school at Mastiput. During the rainy season, the students often fail to reach the school. Though the issue was taken up with the municipality executive officer on several occasions, it yielded no results, village head Tuna Golari said.
Villagers said they would stage a dharna unless the authorities took measures to address their problems.
When contacted, executive officer Bhabagrahi Sahoo said the executive engineer of PHEO has been urged to set up a tube-well in the area. Work on the road would begin soon, he said. PNN
