Rajesh Kumar Behera in Kendrapara, Orissa
Thousands of agitators of coastal Talachua ,Rangani, Dangamala and Iswarpur Gram pachayats under Rajnagar block ,who staged fast unto death at Khola bridge since last Tuesday protesting against the callous attitude of state government and district administration in providing basic amenities like health , drinking water facilities, better education to the coastal children along with constructing PMGSY road from Inswarpur to Dangamala via Nalitapatia ,withdrawn their agitation after continuing stir for 40 hours following the sub collector and the local BJD MLA promised to look after their demands in a war footing basis and to complete the road construction work within 2010.
Notably, thousands of villagers ,including women ,children and oldmen, of Talachua ,Rangani, Dangamala and Iswarpur Gram pachayats within the Bhitarkanika National park on Wednesday staged fast unto death agitation demanding before the district administration to fulfill their basis amenities by providing priority to construct PMGSY road from Iswarpur to Dangamala near Khola bridge at the main entry point of the National park.As a result, communication to Bhitarkanika National Park in this road was paralysed since Tuesday morning to last night .
The agitators informed that nearly fifty thousand villagers of 29 villages within the Bhitarakanika National Park sans proper communication system since the dawn of the Independence, only due to the step motherly attitude of the government mechinaries as well as lack of attention provided by the state government for which the area is still remained undeveloped. Villagers , who mostly collect their bread and butter from agriculture and pisiculture, find it difficult to sell their products, particularly perishable items.
Keeping in mind , the District Rural Development Agency in the year 2007 invited a tender amounting of Rs 7.50 crores to construct 24 km long roadunder PMGSY from Iswarpur to Dangamal via Nalitapatia with an aim to provide proper road communication to Dangamal, Talachua, Iswarpur, Rangani and other Gram Panchayats. In order to construct the road a contractor of Paradeep got the tender work and the district administration had earlier directed to complete the work within December 2009 .But though more than two years have been passed but the road construction works is yet to be completed , alleged Kantilata Behera the Sarapanch of Dangamal.
Sudrashan Das the Panchayat Samiti member of Dangamal alleged that reminders to the district administration to carry out repair of some major roads had fallen flat . The condition of roads is so deplorable that it takes long hours to reach from one village to another village. The government had announced several projects for Bhitarakanika areas but few had seen the light.
The state government had built two bridges on the river six years ago to connect the Indias second largest mangrove forest Bhitarakanika from Rajnagar by road. But the approach road of the bridge at Khola on the river Khola is yet to be completed as a result the villagers and many tourists are facing lot of problems to visit Bhitarakanika by road, said Prakash Mandal of Rangani Gram Panchayat.
The agitators also alleged before the senior officials of district administration ,who visited on Wednesday to discuss with the agitators, that more than 20 villages are yet to get electricity connection besides most of the villages sans drinking water facilities .
The agitators withdrew their fast unto death stir following the Sub collector , Ranjan Kumar Dash, and the Rajnagar MLA, Alekha Chandra Jena, promised the agitators that they are going to direct the contractor to start the road construction work in a war footing basis . If the contactor failed to start work , then the district administration is going to ask the state government by urging the government to change the contractor from the said road project and to appoint a new contractor instead of him to built the road .The road construction work of Iswarpur-Dangamala via Nalitapatia is going to be completed in 2010, informed the tehsildar of Rajnagar ,Sasanka Sekhar Dash.
