Chhendipada: Expansion of National Highway 55 here in Angul district has forced a four-member family of Kumrusingh village under Jarpada panchayat under this block to seek shelter under open sky in the bone-chilling cold.
With no help from the administration, the family is spending sleepless nights in a thatched hut near the National Highway.
The family has no land of its own to construct a house. The family members pleaded with the administration to take notice of their plight and provide them a house under Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana and Indira Awas Yojana.
According to sources, ailing couple Nabakrushna Barik and Sofia Begum had been living with their physically challenged son Mukesh and a minor daughter in a hut on the side of NH 55.
They had applied for a house, but their pleas were left unheard.
Meanwhile, due to the expansion of the NH, their little hut was razed. Now, with nobody bothering to help them in their rehabilitation, the family is living in a decrepit hut. Though Nabakrushna has been given compensation, he is not able to get a house built as he does not own land anywhere.
“Spending chilling nights in a nearly caved in hut is very difficult for us. The compensation money is not helping me in any way to get a house constructed as I am landless,” said Nabakrushna.
He had asked Chhendipada tehsildar for a patch of land from the Revenue Department. But his pleading fell on deaf ears.
Meanwhile, he has requested the block administration to sanction a house under a rural housing scheme. “I belong to minority community. And on this ground at least, the administration should help me,” said a distressed Nabakrushna.
When contacted, Block Development Officer (BDO) Romanchal Khamari said, “a separate investigation would be initiated to find out the condition of Nabakrushna and then only a decision would be taken, according to the provisions, regarding steps to be taken.”
PNN