Balikuda: During rains the river Haladipani becomes a headache for the people of 29 villages in seven panchayats near Paradip. Till 1960, the river used to be the only way out for excess water flowing from Bhutamundai panchayat through Biswal, Kothi, Bagadia, Nuagarh and Paradip Garh.
In 1960, the Cuttack-Paradip State Highway was constructed obstructing the river’s course at Pippal village in Paradip Garh panchayat. As a result, the low lying areas of 29 villages are now struggling with water logging during rains.
Every year the villagers stage protests and write letters to the authorities only to get assurances, but no action.
With the induction of Balikuda-Ersama MLA Raghunandan Das into the Cabinet as Minister of Water Resources the villagers are now hopeful that their long pending problem might get solved.
Hundreds of villagers from Bhutamundai met Das at Paradip and handed over a letter addressed to the Chief Minister during a felicitation meeting recently.
Das said he had just taken charge, and as this is a long standing demand he would look into it. He also assured to prioritise the issue as it affects farmers.
The government converted the Cuttack-Paradip road into a concrete one in 2009-10. But the 180 metre stretch, which is obstructing the river, could not be converted as people staged a protest at that time. The condition of this part of the road is still the same.
There are many rivers that exist only on paper suffering the same fate as Haladipani which was sacrificed at the altar of development
Once there used to be 57 rivers, small and big ones, around Paradip, stretching from Kendrapara district to Mahakalapara to Santara in Kujang block covering 22,995 acres. Over the years many industries came up destroying these water bodies. Now people remember these rivers by the names of some places that were named after nearby rivers.
Ataharabanki reminds people of 18 rivers flowing there. Similarly, Chaumuhani is the place where there used to be four river mouths.
There is a place called ‘Jatadhar Muhana’. ‘Jata’ means the aerial root of a tree like the banyan tree and ‘dhara’ means a stream and ‘Muhana’ a river mouth. The place gets the name from the streams of rivers that used to flow like the roots of a banyan tree before joining the sea.
“The obstruction of rivers is a problem caused by industrialisation. But the courses of some rivers like Haladipani has to be kept open to prevent floods,” said the seniors of Bhutamundai.