No relief for Ganjam hilly villagers from lone rough road

--Not repaired properly; authorities churlish

BRAHMAPUR: For the villagers of Podagada, Jhatipadar, N Barapalli and Raghunathpur under Ramagarh gram panchayat in Ganjam block, a good motorable road is still a far cry. Except a three-km-long slush road, the villages surrounded by mountains have no other alternative roads to connect to the National Highway-5 at Palur Junction, 37 km away from here.

Around 4,000 villagers depend on the road which was in precarious condition. The rural road has become a headache for the people of these villages as it has hundreds of potholes and substandard works of stone chips making the road a hell for commuters. According to villager Rabi Narayan Pradhan of Jhatipadar, a portion of the shoddy mud road had been constructed in 2002 after several years of struggle. Surprisingly, the constructed portion had become rough after two years, he added.

Again a contractor got the road tender and had started repairing another portion of the road. “We were happy about the construction of the road, but after a few days of the work, the contractor left it halfway by only scattering black stone chips on the road,” said a villager of Podagada. “Anyhow the road was manageable to commute before construction, but after this it became rough to very rough. The strong black stone chips scattered all over the road starting from its beginning to the end created problems for vehicles and commuters,” said Duryodhan Sahu of Podagada village.

Youths from the villages said the hired auto-rickshaws or cars take more money to come to their villages only for the deadly road. “If we hire vehicles like auto-rickshaw or taxi at night, some of them don’t come fearing the road’s condition,” said Basanta Pallai of Podagada.

“Some children and elderly persons of the four villages got injured in accidents which took place on this road,” said an old woman of N Barapalli village and added that the ambulance take almost double time to cross the road while taking a patient to a hospital. “It’s horrible to drive the vehicles on this road. We always pray god while taking a heart patient to the hospital,” said an auto-rickshaw driver Golak Kumar Sahu.

Pradhan said the State Government with the help the World Bank had sanctioned a multi-purpose cyclone shelter along with an all weather road to Podagada and Jhatipadar a few years back. The cyclone shelter work has been completed, but the road work is yet to be started, he added.

“We have been demanding for the construction of the road, but nobody is paying heed to our demands,” said Duryodhan, adding, “When we asked Executive Engineer (RW-II Division, Brahmapur) about status of the road, he informed us that a contractor had challenged the tender process in the court as a result of which the work was not taking off.” When contacted, Engineer-in-Chief (Civil) got angry and pleaded not to disturb him for a silly matter.

The story was published in The Pioneer English daily on November 6, 2014  

‘Aim to touch millions of hearts’- A tale of two city slum kids

BHUBANESWAR: Unlike Switzerland, people residing here don’t obey zebra crossing rules on the roads. The European country is very kind  towards its children,” said Rupak Gouda and Jasmin Nisa of Science Park slum in the city, who had attended a children conference held at Caux in Switzerland recently.

The two children, who are active members of the Humara Bachpan child club, took a pause and said they saw several good initiatives taken by the Swiss Government for children. Their transportation system was child-friendly and living condition was also good, they added.

“An elderly people also says sorry for committing a minor mistake in that country which I found very educative and inspiring,” said Rupak, a +2 first year student reading in city-based Acharya Harihar College.

We were listening to Rupak and Jasmin’s success story in a small house in the slum which was connected with a narrow road slashed by small drains connected with dingy houses. When we asked Rupak about his feelings towards slum, the boy stopped smiling and said he had raised the issues related to the awful living conditions in Bhubaneswar slums in three international conferences held in New Delhi, Switzerland and Hyderabad.

In the conferences, Rupak and Jasmin had raised eight points related to slum problems including housing, water, sanitation, public space, electricity and public transport. “Living condition is very bad in the slums. We cannot get a good space for playing for which we feel dull,” said Rupak, adding, “The sewerage and drainage problems in the slums create breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other germs as a result of which we fall ill most of the time.”

Jasmin, a Class IX student of Unit-IX Government Girls High School in the city, said they have several child clubs in different slums of the city. Child advocates of the clubs meet together and discuss about different problems of slums. After discussion, they meet people’s representatives and Government officials to solve problems of their area, she added.

“Two years back, I had joined the club formed by Humara Bachpan campaign. The campaign helped me attend international child conferences to represent Bhubaneswar,” said Jasmin.

The duo said a group of children from different slums had met Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Mayor Anant Narayan Jena recently and discussed about different issues related to children. “We were very happy that the Mayor behaved with us like a normal friend and lent his ears to our grievances,” they added.

Jasmin, who wanted to be a social activist and fight for rights of slum people living in the country, said the Government should ensure that every girl child of the slums gets education and equal rights.

Rupak, who wants to be an aeronautical engineer to help the Indian Air Force, said every children of the country have rights to get education, live with dignity and get basic necessities which should be guaranteed by the Government. “We have been raising this point in every forum that the Government should help us in improving our living condition,” he added.

The duo was also selected to meet the President of India on the occasion of Children’s Day on November 15. They would represent the State in the national level.

The smiling little girl and the talented boy came with us to the end of the slum road to say goodbye. While leaving the place, Jasmin’s words, “Aim to touch million of hearts” were reverberating in my mind.

The story was published in The Pioneer English daily on November 5, 2014