Lathor: In spite of the launch of several welfare schemes and crores spent on rural development, many areas still lack basic facilities like health, education, communication and most importantly, drinking water.
Lahumunda village, under Mahulpati panchayat of Turkela block in Bolangir district, is one such village where people live a life of exclusion and deprivation. The village comprises about 25 tribal families. There are around 150 people in all including women and children. With no land of their own, the villagers live in Bendar reserve forest under Lathor range. They have cleared some areas in the forest for living and depend entirely on natural produce.
The lack of well-paved concrete roads has resulted in them being cut-off from other villages. These people primarily depend on Turkela block to meet their day-to-day needs. While other villages have pucca roads under schemes like Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, this village is yet to have one. As a result, no bus plies on the road to the village thus forcing the inhabitants to walk more than six kilometers to trach the nearest town. This takes them about two-three hours.
IThe situation tends to worsen during the monsoons. The people are faced with hardships and it gets really difficult to send a patient to the hospital. Moreover, around 22 school students licing in the village, have to walk through forests to reach a nearby school. The administration is yet to acknowledge the sorry plight of these villagers.
Similarly, there is no Anganwadi centre in the village. While many do not even possess a ration card, those who do have a ration card are also denied the rice promised to villagers NFSA Act.
“We have been complaining about lack of road connectivity repeatedly but to no avail,” a villager said adding that they do not have access to clean drinking water and depend on water from a creek for drinking and cooking purposes.
“During summers, the water problem gets worse as the creek runs dry. Then we are forced to drink contaminated water and as a result the villagers suffer from various health problems. We have met the block chairman, the block development officer and the sarpanch to seek their help, but nothing has been done for us so far,” he said.
While our correspondent tried to contact the Turkela BDO over phone, the latter was not available for comment. When contacted, Titlagarh sub-collector Sudhar Naik said, “I will personally visit the village along with the BDO and tehsildar and look into the matter.”
PNN