Raisaun: Tribal-dominated Mahadeijoda panchayat under Keonjhar block is a picture of neglect on all counts due to alleged ineffective implementation of various welfare and development programmes.
Scores of poor tribals in the panchayat are being deprived of the benefits of Indira Awas Yojana, Mo Kudia, and pension for elderly and differently-abled persons due to alleged irregularities at the political and official levels while the panchayat reels under backwardness owing to lack of road connectivity, healthcare and education.
Locals alleged all government programmes and schemes were defeated due to corruption while officials and people’s representatives pay little heed to the plight of the people.
People frequenting the block and panchayat office on a daily basis seeking to register complaints has become a common sight.
“We have to return dejected without anything being done,” they pointed out.
According to reports, over 3,000 people live in the panchayat. Around 80 per cent of the population belongs to ST and SC. The sorry state of the villages and their residents amply proves that the people were deprived of drawing benefits of government programmes and schemes.
There are no concrete roads in many villages. In the rainy season, people face a harrowing time when the villages get water-logged. They remain cut off from the rest of the world when communication goes haywire.
In many villages, poor tribal families have been struggling for survival without the welfare and social security and food security programmes.
Despite their poverty, scores of poor tribals have not been brought under the food security net.
About 80 per cent poor and elderly persons were not provided pension while many wealthy persons have allegedly enrolled themselves as beneficiaries of pension in the panchayat.
IAY and Mo Kudia schemes are a complete failure, say locals. This is evident from the fact that 80 per cent of tribal families live under thatched and dilapidated shanties.
Given the sordid state of Ranthamara village, anyone can see that delivery of government schemes has become a dream for residents. In monsoon, communication to the villages comes a cropper. People have no way out but to carry patients and pregnant women on cots to the nearby hospital.
The villagers had staged protests and demonstrations outside the collectorate several times in the past over lack of basic facilities, but to no avail. The administration only assures them of development every time they go on protest, but later everything dies down, locals lamented.
70-year old Randa Purty of Ranthamara village, said she has become exhausted from frequenting panchayat and block offices for enrolling her name as a pension beneficiary, but nothing is being done for her. The elderly woman is struggling for survival with none to take care of her. Her husband died 30 years ago while her daughter was married off. She used to make her living by doing odd jobs, but now she is unable to do that.
There are scores of elderly persons like Randa living in misery without a social security net.
Mangulu Munda is visually challenged since birth. Orphaned in the childhood, Munda has been living in distress. He said neighbours helped him grow up and get settled by arranging his marriage.
Now, with five members, he has been facing a lot of difficulties while his family was not listed in NFSA. PNN
