Jajpur: A dozen of major roads in this district belongs to neighbouring Cuttack and Keonjhar districts.
These roads are still under the road and building divisions of Cuttack and Keonjhar and are in bad shape while the R&B division of the neighbouring districts has zero concern for the restoration of the roads, it was alleged.
On the other hand, the district administration has no say on the Cuttack R&B division. Sadly, even though 24 years have passed since Jajpur was made a separate district, no effort has been made by the district administration to bring these roads under the control of the R&B division of Jajpur.
Most of these roads spanning about hundreds of km are connected to Cuttack and Koenjhar.
A case in point is 20-km Duburi-Brhaminipal road. This road is under Keonjhar R&B division. When this road construction was completed, there was a demand to hand over the road to the Jajpur R&B division (Panikoili). Sukinda MLA Pritiranajan Ghadei had earlier written to the secretary of the R&B department to hand over the road to Panikoili R&B division. However, the road was brought under the control of Ghatagaon R&B division.
This road is in tatters as the engineers of the Ghatagaon R&B division have not paid attention to its repair and restoration. Commuting on this route is always fraught with dangers and accidents, because diversion parts of the road have not been repaired.
Similarly, 11 important roads in Barchana and Bari blocks are under Charbatia R&B division.
These roads are Barchana-Darpanigarh, Krushnadaspur-Ratnagiri, Barchana- Balichandrapur, Chhatia-Champaur-Kalakala, Bairi- Chandikhole, Janaka-GHaladharpur, Balichandrapur-Dekudi, Bandalo-Endarpada, Darpanigarh-Siha,9(under Barchana block) Ratnagiri-Kampagada and Dargha Brahmani bridge-Haladibasant(under bari block).
It was alleged that though Charbatia R&B division had spent lakhs of rupees for the restoration of Balichandrapur-Dekudi road, it was left in bad shape, giving nightmares to the commuters. It was learnt that in the last two years, about Rs 4 crore has been spent towards restoration of the road. During the British Raj, tourists used to commute on this road to visit Biddhit hubs like Lalitagiri, Ratnagiri and Udaygiri.
Locals pointed out that the R&B division of the neigbouring district botched up the repair and maintenance of these roads.
Besides, Lalitagiri-Kampagada road is now full of craters and potholes, which have made the commuting more difficult, locals lamented. People of various areas demanded that these roads should be brought under Panikoili division for proper maintenance.
An ex-executive engineer of Panikoili R&B division said as per the decision of the state government, these roads have been allotted to various R&B divisions. Maintenance works of these roads are being done accordingly, he added.
PNN