Malkangiri: Residents of seven villages in this district, Sunday, chose a unique way to expose the failure of administration in providing them communication facility.
Residents of M.V-111, Talaguda, Parajaguda, Kenduguda, Rijariguda, Bhimarangeni and Musha villages planted paddy saplings on the muddy road as a mark of protest against the administration’s apathy.
Both the central and state governments are spending lakhs of rupees to lay pucca roads to villages and to convert muddy village roads into concrete ones.
But people living in interiors here are not getting their advantages.
Just five kilometers from the municipality office, people of M.V-111, Talaguda, Parajaguda, Kenduguda, Rijariguda, Bhimarangeni and Musha villages face various difficulties in every rainy season owing to bad road conditions.
According to sources, the Satiguda river embankment road in MV-111 village, two kilometers away from Malkangiri-Jeypore road, is in bad shape. Apart from villagers, students of Satiguda ‘Kanyshram’ and their parents use this road for communication.
Tourists visiting the Satiguda tourist spot all year round use the Satiguda river embankment road, which is four kilometres from the main road, to reach the destination.
The Satiguda river embankment road is in bad shape now with craters, giving a harrowing experience to commuters.
The excess water in the Satiguda reservoir is discharged though a canal that has M.V-111 and Talaguda villages on its either sides. In order to establish communication facility between these two villages, the district rural development agency constructed a bridge at a cost of Rs 9 lakh in the year 2009.
In rainy season, the bridge road as well as other roads laid out to the villages become muddy, making it difficult for the villagers to go to Malkangiri town to get various works done.
They have been taking up the road problem with the MP, MLA, Collector and the concerned agencies on many occasions, but no joy received as yet, alleged ex-sarpanch, Sindhrimal, Ghasiram Nayak.
As the district administration is always turning a blind eye to the sufferings of the villagers, they planted paddy saplings on the road to mark their pent-up resentment.
Hundreds of villagers warned that they would resort to stage a road blockade on Jeypore-Malkangiri main road for an indefinite period if the administration takes no immediate step to get the road repaired.
PNN