Berhampur: A day after eight persons lost their lives and over 34 injured in a bus mishap on the Taptapani ghat in Ganjam district, residents of Haladiapadar village performed Saraswati Puja in a unique way, Thursday. They worshipped Goddess Durga’s photo, chanted shlokas and prayed for the safety of commuters crossing Haladiapadar Overbridge Square.
The residents with an aim to draw the Ganjam district administration’s attention towards the issues, offered prayers to Goddess Durga on roadside of the National Highway-5. Notably, the Haladiapadar Overbridge Square connecting Berhampur town to the NH-5 is an accident prone area.
A local alleged due to some error in the overbridge’s design, accidents are occurring almost every day near Haladiapadar Overbridge Square. Moreover, someone has to travel more than four kilometers to go to the other side of the NH. They alleged to have sought the administration’s intervention in the past but their pleas are yet to be addressed.
Similarly, the residents of Taptapani on the fringes of Ganjam and Gajapati districts also performed rituals before deities Kandhuni Devi and Lord Nilakantheswar to ward off mishaps on the ghat road and also on Ganjam-Gajapati main road.