Banki: Even though 74 years have passed after the Independence, there is still no pucca road connectivity to villages in this region.
Such a picture of administrative apathy can be seen in Tarapur Sabarsahi village in Dhansar panchayat under Banki-Dompada block limits in Cuttack district.
According to sources, more than 50 tribal families have been living in Ward No-14 of Tarapur Sabarsahi village of Dhansar panchayat, only 5 kilometres away from Dompada block office.
Although the inhabitants of the village have been repeatedly pleading with the public representatives for a well-built pucca road to the village, no one is lending an ear, complained the villagers.
Many a promises of a road have been made during the panchayat elections campaigns or before the Assembly polls by the vote hungry politicians, but the promises proved to be hollow.
A pucca road is still a dream for the village. This is really a matter of concern. People have to wade through dirt for a kilometre on a muddy path if they need to go out of their village in order to go to school or to work outside the village.
On the other hand, if any villager faces any health problem or in cases of pregnancy/ child delivery, the villagers carry the patients on their shoulders or hand-made cots till the main road, lamented the villagers and the senior citizens of Tarapur Sabarsahi.
If a concrete road is not built in the village in the coming days, then the village will not vote in the upcoming 3-tier panchayat elections and stage protests on the highway, threatened the villagers including Gouri Dehury, Kumud Majhi, Ramani Dehury, Lili Dehury, Kanak Majhi, Kunirani Majhi, Ramina Majhi, Gajendra Naik, Pitabasa Majhi, Batakrushna Dehury and Anil Majhi.
Even as a plethora of schemes are being prepared by the Centre and the state government for the upliftment of the poverty-stricken, daily wagers and destitute, the present picture of this village situated in the Banki constituency, only 35 kilometre from Cuttack and 40 kilometre away from the Capital city Bhubaneswar, has attracted criticism and flak from the general populace as well as the intelligentsia of Banki who point fingers at the ‘Mo Sarkar’ and 5T initiative of the state government.
Only time will say when the government will alleviate the plights of the villagers after this news is published. The inhabitants of the region demand a concrete road to Tarapur Sabarsahi.
They have drawn the attention of the Cuttack District Collector and the Cuttack Project Director towards their plight. They even tried to contact the BDO in this regard but he was out of network cover.
PNN
