Kendrapara: Four college students including three girls, who pursue Plus III (first year) at the Kendrapara Autonomous College, approached the Collector Thursday demanding repair of the rundown Orta-Bijaynagar road on a war-footing. The students walked nearly 25 km from their village, Bijaynagar.
The students, Bhanupriya Sahoo, Chinulata Khatua and Kamini Sahoo led by Om Prakash Sethy, met Collector Samarth Verma at the Collectorate to demand repairing of the road.
The students told Verma that the Orta-Bijaynagar road was totally damaged. Most of the time mishaps occur on the road as it was too difficult to drive on it. The worst sufferers are school and college students, the students said.
Although repairs were carried out on the road it got damaged a few months later, the students said.
The road from Sahabajpur to Bijaynagar is also full of potholes and ditches. Most of the time jams occur on the road as buses and trucks fall into ditches while travelling on it.
The students of Bijaynagar, who depend on the road to reach college, very often fail to attend college. During rains, the road turns into small ponds, they said.
“I brought the matter to the attention of the Collector by writing about it on his twitter page. The Collector tweeted him that construction of the road was almost complete. He also posted a photo of the road. But the picture that the Collector tweeted was not of the road,” said Om Prakash Sethy.
The four classmates from Bijaynagar decided Wednesday to meet the Collector Thursday with photos of the ditches and potholes on the road.
“We classmates who could not attend classes over last two days due to lack of a proper road met the Collector after trekking 25 km and placed our demand before him,” said Kamini Sahoo.
The Collector listened to their demand and immediately asked the official concerned to start repairing the road. The Collector also gave his mobile phone number to inform him whether repair of the road has started.
PNN