Development a far cry for Raighar

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Raighar: Education, health, communications and other basic facilities in hamlets in Khuduku gram panchayat under Raighar block in Nabarangpur are in a pathetic state.
Odama Dhamaki, a hamlet, which is 25 km from Raighar, has no road connectivity. Similar is the case with Pujari Para, Lalbhatali, Madan Shree, Gointa Beda and Taria Dangari villages which do not have road links.
Odama Dhamaki has one primary school where two teachers educate 30 students in only one classroom. Similarly, another hamlet, Lalbhatali, which is surrounded by Pujari Para, Madan Shree, Gointa Beda and Taria Dangari, has no school. As the kids of these villages also have no school, the villagers have made their own arrangement to teach their kids. They have hired an educated youth from a nearby village to teach at least 30 kids of the village. He is paid out of funds collected from the villagers.
“We also pay some money to the house owner as room rent where our kids are studying and the teacher by collecting funds from the locals,” said a few villagers. A youth is also teaching the children at Madan Shree village.
The villagers have taken this initiative as no government official or any elected representative has shown interest in their welfare, even after they have informed the officials many times, the villagers added.
Education of children in these villages is not the only problem. Roads exist for namesake. Bi-cycle is the only means of transport to go to hospitals due to bad road condition. Pregnant women or any serious patient are carried on cycle or bullock cart to the nearest hospital. However, the problems multiply in the rainy season. The villagers have to walk for at least 4 km to reach the Khukudu panchayat office to bring subsidized rice and kerosene.
The villagers also suffer due to lack of drinking water as there is no tube well in the pond, following which the villagers depend on a water pit for their drinking water need.
The water crisis has also hit farming in the villages. Locals cultivate paddy and corn in their lands; however, they have to depend on rainwater as there is no proper irrigation system.
There is a canal near the village; cultivation could be improved if a check dam was built on the canal, said Bihari Lal Gouda and Asaram Gando, the residents of the village. They said a bridge was also constructed on the canal. However, it collapsed within two years.
The Raighar Journalists’ Association led by its president Kiran Kumar Patnaik organised a programme, ‘Asa Gaon Bulijiba’ to highlight the villagers’ problems and their possible solutions.