Bhadrak: Panic gripped residents of Dhamnagar block in Bhadrak district Saturday evening after an embankment of Kochila river developed a 200-meter-long crack near Sailo.
According to local residents, a large part of the stretch has sunk towards the left side leading to the crack. This crack poses a threat to the villagers of three nearby panchayats, they said.
Even though the locals have always been fearful of breaches in the embankment, the administration has taken no concrete action to address the issue.
Sailo villagers have alleged that substandard construction work has led to the development of the crack. They also said that such incidents took place in the recent past multiple times and every time the contractors used to put up poles and stack sandbags along the embankment as a temporary measure.
In the event of a breach, scores of hamlets are likely to face the fury of floods, the villagers added while demanding a good quality repair of the embankment to avoid further chances of breaching.
PNN