Purushottampur: Scores of women staged a road blockade in Ganjam district Saturday protesting an acute drinking water shortage in Bananai village under Bada kharida panchayat in Purushottampur block. Carrying empty pots and earthen pitchers, villagers blocked State Highway 31 connecting Aska and Humma, alleging that repeated complaints to the administration and Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) officials had gone unanswered.
Residents said severe summer heat over the past month had drastically lowered groundwater levels, leaving old borewells nearly dry. Villagers had been fetching water from distant wells in agricultural fields, but those sources have also dried up, triggering an acute shortage of water for drinking and cooking purposes.
The protest, which began around 7 am, disrupted traffic on both sides of the highway until about 10:30 am, leaving hundreds of vehicles stranded. Local officials, including Purushottampur Tehsildar Binod Behera, SDPO Sujit Nayak and police officers Kulamani Sethi and Nitesh Mishra, reached the site and held discussions with the protesters.
Following reports of the agitation, Kabisuryanagar MLA Pratap Chandra Nayak spoke to villagers over phone and directed officials to arrange an immediate drinking water supply through tankers. He also instructed the RWSS department to drill new borewells in the village without delay.
Assistant Engineer Pradeep Tripathy assured residents that tankers would supply water to all hamlets and three new borewells would be dug by Saturday evening. The blockade was withdrawn after the assurance.