Asish Mehta
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, August 24: It was his growing fear that the decrepit mud house built by his poor, daily-wager father on their two-decimal land may crumble in the rains that drove Sambhunath Moharana to approach CM Naveen Patnaik.
The fear was made unbearable by the “neglect and insensitivity” he had been facing from the successive BDOs of Ghasipura in Keonjhar, his home district, who had ignored for years his plea to get a house under the Biju Pucca Ghara and Mo Kudia Yojana of the state government meant for the underprivileged living in rural areas.
Speaking to Orissa Post, Moharana said the BDOs, officials of the local administration and also the sarpanch had continually ignored all his requests for a brick-and-cement house that withstands the rain and the winds.
“I had earlier registered a complaint with the Chief Minister’s Grievances Cell on this. The officials then sent a letter July 1 directing the Ghasipura BDO to consider my case. But when I met the BDO July 10 to hand over the receipt, he threw it away,” alleged Moharana, whose father, Ratnakar Moharana (65), still works as a daily-wage labourer.
Prevented by acute poverty from passing his class-X board examinations, Moharana started working as carpenter some 12 years back. “I used to earn Rs 25 a day initially, and now I earn Rs 200 a day, but still I do not have the financial capacity to build a pucca house. I cannot bear to see my mud house crumbling. I keep worrying about it,” said Moharana.
Although unhappy with the police action on him – being whisked away Sunday and then being detained at the Capital police station before being released Monday – Moharana said he did not mean to breach the CM’s security cordon or to embarrass him. “I know I ended up making a mistake, but I was left with no other option as my family had been deliberately neglected for years,” he said. He had come to Bhubaneswar with the hope that someday he would meet the CM and let him know of his relentless problem. “I read in a newspaper Sunday morning that the CM will come to Jaydev Bhawan and I made up my mind instantly that I will hand over the memorandum to him for justice,” he added.