Post News Network
Bhograi, April 26: Due to lack of proper flood control measures, most parts of this largest block in the state have been facing unprecedented damages in terms of lives and properties every year.
The government has started a number of projects to alleviate the impact of natural disasters, but many of them are either lying incomplete or abandoned.
For instance, Subarnarekha Sanskar Yojana for saving flood-prone areas of the block has not made much headway. The water resources department started construction of a sluice gate at Gochhida to facilitate the drainage of flood water eight years ago, but it was abandoned
midway, much to the dismay of the locals who have to suffer a lot
during floods.
Residents of this block mostly depend on agriculture and the area is also popular as the ‘rice bowl’ of northern Balasore. But floods have been their major cause of worry as they destroy their crops extensively.
As the administration has failed to
effectively put in place flood-control measures, the area has always been the victim of flood fury, with people losing their hard-earned money invested in cultivation every year. This has also led to a decrease in the interest of youths towards agriculture as they prefer to migrate to cities like Hyderabad, Goa, Surat and Bangalore in search of work, locals said.
The first NDA government at the Centre had sanctioned `9.15 crore for the project proposal made by the water resources department.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone of the sluice gate December 15, 2006 and the project was slated to be completed by May 2007.
Even as Orissa Construction Corporation was awarded the contract of construction work, another contractor allegedly executed the work.
Eight years have elapsed, but the sluice gate has been rendered useless because it has not yet been connected with an
approach road to serve its purpose.
However, the department has blamed the hurdles in land acquisition as the
reason of the delay.
Once completed, the sluice gatewill flush out 333 cusec of flood water from 27,337 hectare of farmlands on the Subarnarekha river basin.
Earlier, a 40-metre long sluice gate was built at the site during British Raj but it was not sufficient to discharge flood waters. So, the current 58.4-metre long project was conceived to replace the old one.
The project will save over 30,000 people in 29 low-lying areas from suffering crop damages. In addition, the sluice gate will facilitate connectivity to Uluda-Laxmipatana road. Over a dozen of
villages including Rasalpur, Khalabadia, Barbatia, Nilapura, Badachana, Chirkula Nathipur, Harinakuli, Manunagar, Aruabruti, Teghari, Nayapalli, Bahadalganj and Ulluda, commute on the road.
Last year, though no major flood hit the area, locals had to suffer due to
stagnant flood water. Uluda-Laxmipatana road remained submerged under flood water for several days.
Akshaya Dalai, a resident of Laxmipatana said that the new sluice gate should be made operational as soon as possible as mechanism and iron gates have started rusting due to disuse.
Jogendra Pal of Barbati village said that during floods the old road gets
inundated, resulting in disruption of communication to 20 villages for days
together. As the water remains stagnant, paddy crop also suffers damage, he added.
Former sarpanch Nishikant Sahu said that the land acquisition gets delayed due to negligence of the water resources department. Samiti member Damayanti Sahu demanded that the revenue and water resources department should sort out the land acquisition issue to quickly to complete the project.
SDO of the water resources department Nirmalkant Jena said that talks are on with land owners for land acquisition and the project is expected to be put in place.