Aul: Even many decades after independence, there are hundreds of villages in the state that are still deprived of basic human amenities.
The Centre and the state government spend crores of rupees to fulfill the fundamental needs of these people such as their education, health and transportation, but nobody cares to find out whether these funds have borne the desired fruits.
People are still marooned from the outside world as they were decades back. Ekamania gram panchayat in Aul block of Kendrapara district is a case in point.
Ekamania, Nalapahi and Dakhinadiha villages constitute this panchayat which is 15 km from the block headquarters. The panchayat is surrounded by the Brahmani and the Kharashrota rivers.
Four thousand people living in these three villages are cut off from the outside world as most of the time in a year they find themselves marooned. They have no access to health, education and transportation.
People cannot avail a facility as basic as an ambulance whenever there is a health emergency or a fire tender when there is a fire the village. The only link for their association with the outside world is by way of boats.
Their long-held demand for a bridge to their panchayat has been buried under bulky files of the administration. The state government had laid the foundation stone of a bridge in 2016.
However, the irony is that there is no follow-up action after that. Officials visit these waterlogged villages whenever there are some official functions, politicians also visit them before elections, but they forget the hard fate of these people once their work is over.
As the surrounding rivers of these villages are connected to the Bhitarkanika sanctuary, these rivers are always infested with crocodiles. The villagers always live under the fear of death. People’s miseries know no bounds whenever there is a flood in the rivers.
Regular floods have turned to be a permanent curse for these residents. Floods inundate their farmlands and get them sand-cast. This is high time the government did something for these people, claim local intelligentsia.
Health services have been a dream for these people. Residents, even if they are afflicted by a small cold, are forced to visit hospitals in Rajnagar or Mahu.
As it were, there is no government or the administration to listen to the plight of these people. Villagers of the panchayat have against appealed to the government to construct a bridge over the rivers, without further delay.
PNN
