Keonjhar: Lack of road connectivity is said to be a major hurdle in development of scores of remote villages and hamlets located in hilly pockets of Harichandanpur block in this district.
Tribals, especially the primitive Juangas, have been leading a miserable life in the absence of basic amenities and have remained backward on all fronts.
According to a report, in the absence of all-weather roads to hilly villages like Ranipada, Kanheigola, Nul, Baunri, Moragola, Turanga and Hatikhunta in Badapalaspal panchayat, tribals face a lot of problems. The villages are 8 to 10 km away from the panchayat headquarters and 25 to 30 km away from the block headquarters.
The woes of the villagers compound in the rainy season when they fail to venture out of their forested confines.
“Hilly terrains and streams throw hurdles in our daily commuting. We have to trek miles on the Chandangiri ghat. Slings and cots are only means of carrying patients and pregnant women out of the villages to Badapalaspal from where they ferried to hospitals in ambulances,” said some local tribals.
Roads and other communication facilities are supposed to be made available in these areas under the Integrated Action Plan. However, for lack of development, Badapalaspal has remained a Maoist-affected area.
The remote area is inhabited by over 1,500 tribal families. The sorry state of the residents speaks volumes of the administrative apathy towards them. With these pockets remaining inaccessible, most tribals fail to draw benefits of social security schemes while the government’s poverty eradication programmes have reportedly been ineffective here.
An ashram school has been set up in the area, but it is plagued by a host of problems. The government has provided solar-powered lamps in some villages, but most of them have become defunct.
“As a result, people have to reel under darkness,” said some conscious citizens of the locality– Dinabandhu Arukh, Bhaskar Arukh, Bipin Mahakud, Bijay Sahu and Dev Mahakud. PNN
