Nayagarh: Although the country has stepped into the digital age, as many as 583 villages in Nayagarh district lack basic amenities and facilities as essential as a proper road, electricity and mobile service. While 229 villages in the district lack power supply, mobile service still eludes 247 villages. People continue to carry critically ill patients to the hospitals on slings and cots as ambulances fail to reach 107 villages due to the lack of an all-weather road.
Critically ill patients often die at their homes or on the way after failing to reach a hospital in time to avail of healthcare services. As a result, residents of these villages continue to live a life of deprivation and drudgery. These problems are not of far away Kalahandi or Koraput districts but of villages under Daspalla, Gania, Nuagaon, Ranpur and Khandapara blocks in Nayagarh district despite proximity to the state capital Bhubaneswar. Over 75 years since the country achieved independence from the British, development continues to be a misnomer in these villages. The death of Sabita Mallick, wife of Pradip Mallick of Dahangisahi, in Kanapaju village under Daspalla block May 25 is a case in this point. Sabita died after an ambulance failed to reach near her house due to lack of a good road to the village. Ambulances fail to reach Salapganda and Mushiguda villages under Gania block in the absence of a good road. Jayanti, wife of Harihar Pradhan in Salapganda village, delivered a stillborn on the way as she had to walk to the hospital after experiencing labour pain, May 24.
Family members had called an ambulance but in the absence of a good road, it could not reach near her doorstep. Kin alleged that she delivered a stillborn as she had to walk on the rugged path while carrying the baby in her womb.
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Similarly, Rashmita, wife of Prasant Jani, delivered a newborn boy in a jungle on the way to the hospital while being carried on a sling, May 24. Reports said the majority of the villages in Gania, Daspalla, Ranpur and Nugaon blocks do not have proper roads. People have been raising demands and making allegations for many years but to no avail. The administration has failed to construct a good road in these villages where the majority of the population belongs to tribal and Dalit communities. The government is constructing roads to various villages under Centre sponsored Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) but it has given a miss to these villages in Nayagarh district, people alleged.
Villagers Sudama Pradhan, Mithun Jani and Nirmala Pradhan said that the Centre and the state government are spending several crores for the development of the tribals but still many villages in the district lack a good road while power supply and mobile phone service are still a dream. Villages like Badabankajhari, Raikhol, Rugudisahi, Dumuduma, Damaghati, Senepari, Duisingh, Bedadi, Kumuri, Salapganda, Mushiguda and Bankajhari under Gania block and some villages under Daspalla, Khandapara, Nuagaon and Ranpur blocks not only lack a good road but also power supply and mobile phone service. This has put question marks on the development planks of the Centre as well as the state government. These villages slip into darkness as evening descends. The tribal villagers light up a timber log or depend on oil lamps to fight the darkness. They ex-pressed resentment as they wondered why all the developmental works are confined to the urban areas and questioned why the government is so apathetic towards their problems.