Mahakalpara: Even as the state and the Central governments have launched a host of schemes to impart quality education, students in remote Badadandua and Bagagahana villages under this block in Kendrapara district endure great hardships to receive education, a report said.
In the absence of an all-weather road to the villages, the students first have to tread over farmlands to reach river Bhateni, a distributary of river Gobari. After this tiring journey, they endanger their lives and walk over a slippery and broken sluice gate to reach the other side of the river.
This has been a daily affair for school and college students of the two villages.
Students Prasanjeet Dalai, Gobind Mandal, Baikuntha Mandal, Sita Patra and Usha Mandal all of Class-X and Supada Jalal and Parameshwar Jalal of Class-IX blamed it on the lack of a good road to their villages.
A slight carelessness while walking on the broken sluice gate might land them in the river. Earlier, there have been instances where students have fallen into the river while walking on the broken gate.
After crossing the river, the students take their bicycles from Bhateni village in Jambu panchayat and ride for 2 km to reach Tapoban High School at Benakandha village in Suniti panchayat.
Students of these villages studying in Narendranath Nodal Upper Primary School face a similar situation while going to their school.
However, they stop going to school at the time of heavy rain, cyclonic storm or high tides as the water level rises in the river and flows over three feet on the sluice gate, said some guardians in the villages.
A sluice gate was constructed on the river for conservation of freshwater and irrigating hundreds of hectares of farmlands in Rajnagar, Pattamundai and Mahakalapara blocks of Kendrapara district after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik laid a foundation stone for the project July 19, 2003.
However, due to sub-standard construction work and use of low-quality construction material, the sluice gate soon collapsed. The state government then suspended the engineers entrusted with the construction work.
The collapsed structure is still lying in the river and is being used by the residents of these two remote villages to connect with the other side of the river.
There is a plan to construct another sluice gate but the project is yet to be implemented, it was learnt. PNN
