Sambalpur: A village in Sambalpur district, which was once infested by Maoists amid dense forests, is on the way to development after a road was constructed to the area under Mukhya Mantri Sadak Yojana with sheer efforts of a woman ward member, a report said.
The village was identified as Jarang village under Kayakud panchayat of Jujumura block in this district.
The village lies around 50 km from the district headquarters town and is surrounded by four forests. In the past, the village was prone to Maoist menace where ultras would call every shot in the village.
The villagers always lived in an atmosphere of fear and trepidation. But gone are those days after a road was constructed. This has become possible due to the sincere and dedicated efforts of woman ward member Barilona Kandolona of the village.
She is leaving no stone unturned and has poured her heart and soul to bring a turnaround in the village. Villagers are now finding it easier to join the mainstream after the village was selected for construction of a road under the Mukhya Mantri Sadak Yojana.
Officials and social activists have started visiting the village which has helped in achieving financial and social development of the village. The village has a population of 350 comprising 65 tribal families from four hamlets of Taldihi, Chadali, Budamunda and Schoolpada.
Agriculture is the mainstay of villagers and they cultivate a variety of crops like green grams, black grams, horse grams, maize, pearl millet, and various types of vegetables.
They also collect minor forest produce like Bahada, Sal seeds as well as mahua from the forest and now sell them in the local markets.
They no longer incur damage of their harvested products as they can now travel to the nearest market and sell their produce following construction of a road.
This has helped them in their financial growth. Ambulance can now reach the village smoothly and traders can visit the villagers at their doorsteps and buy their harvested products. The village has a school up to Class V while many of them study outside for higher education.
The government has also made a provision to send the children of the school to study in Ashram School. Moreover, five women self-help groups work in the village which has helped them in becoming financially independent from their male counterparts.
Many developmental works have been carried out in the village during last five years. Kandolana has always been working to make more funds available for developmental works in the village and in making the government welfare schemes accessible to people.
She is so thoughtful for the development of her village that she gives less time for her family and more for the uplift of the village, Kandolana said. She said earlier there was no road to the village for which villagers had to walk on a dirt road and cross three nullahs covering nine km to reach the National Highway-55.
The Kayakud panchayat office is on the other side of the highway while one has to travel 20 km to reach Jujumura block office. Earlier, during rainy season, the village used to get cut off from the rest of the world.
In past, there have been instances when patients have died as family members failed to take them to hospital due to bad condition of the road. As a result, people failed to visit the panchayat office or the block headquarters to get their complaints on pensions, PDS food stocks or a housing scheme redressed.
However, the villagers started experiencing change after the village was connected with a road under the Mukhya Mantri Sadak Yojana. All the villagers have come under the Food Security Act and experience the benefits of government welfare schemes.
If any villager has any problem they can get it redressed by lodging a complaint before the higher authority. When contacted, Kandolana said many of the problems have been resolved while they experience power cuts frequently. She demanded solar lights to be installed and piped water supply to the village.
PNN