layman's space

the pioneer Friday, 31 March 2017 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | When the district administration of Nuapada is yet to take action against those who have embezzled crores of rupees under the 14th Central Finance Commission and the 4th State Finance Commission funds in three gram panchayats of Nuapada block, there is yet another case of fund misappropriation cropping up. People of Kotenchuan GP of Nuapada block have complained that lakhs of rupees have been misappropriated by the Junior Engineer (JE) in connivance with the Assistant Engineer (AE) and the BDO of Nuapada block. In a written complaint to the Project Director of DRDA, the people headed by Rabi Mangaraj, Kalahandi Lok Sabha constituency secretary of Congress, have stated that about Rs12 lakh sanctioned for construction of roads and water resource development projects under GGY and Biju KBK have been misappropriated without even initiating the works. The works are stated to be (1) improvement of road from Colony Pada t...

Sunday, 26 March 2017 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar         Hema (name changed) is happy that the birth of her baby in the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) of Balangir on Friday was normal. She had been undergoing severe mental torture for last ten days after she was denied admission to the Community Health Centre (CHC) at Khariar in Nuapada district for institutional delivery. The cause of denial was shocking. “Dr Mahanand denied treating me when I revealed that I was HIV positive. He was even scared to touch me after my revelation and immediately referred me to the DHH (District Headquarters Hospital) at Nuapada,” says Hema. Hema is a poor dalit woman of Khariar town. The meagre income she and her husband earn from daily wage hardly helps their family have two full squire meals a day. It was not possible for them to hire a vehicle to proceed to the Nuapada DHH, 70 km far from Khariar. Furthermore, they were ...

Wednesday, 22 March 2017 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar         Tweet As the deadline set by the Supreme Court for shifting of foreign liquor shops from the National Highways and State Highway is approaching fast, the vendors in Nuapada district are in a hurry to find alternative sites in nearby villages or suburbs to shift their establishments. However, villagers, especially women, are up in arms against opening of shops in their localities. The district administration had issued s public notice on March 9 inviting objections from the localities against the proposal for granting exclusive privilege for retail sale of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) for the year 2017-18. Objections are coming from all localities, where shops have been proposed. Villagers of Dumardihi under the Khariar Road NAC, Sakhatar and Godtar of the Nuapada NAC and women of Santinagar Pada of the Khariar NAC are vehemently opposing shifting of t...

Thursday, 09 March 2017 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar 1 2 3 4 5 Sixty households of Sagundongri village in Khariar block of Nuapada district now solely depend on a single water seller to get their drinking water as all the water sources in their village have either dried up or become unfit for use. “We have been buying water since last two years,” say the villagers. Their succinct answer for the question why since last two years is, “Our water kills us.” To further affirm their statement, they call Hemanta Banchhor (58) of their villagers and ask him to narrate his problem. “I am taking medicine for last two years from a doctor of Nuapada, who tells that I have kidney problem, which has been caused due to the water I drink,” says Banchhor. As per the villagers, at least 13 persons of the village have died of kidney-related problems in last 10 years and two are now under treatment. “The doctors in Nuapada, Burla and Raip...

Wednesday, 22 February 2017 | Ajit Panda | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar 1 2 3 4 5 An ambitious project of the Government of Odisha to provide fluoride-free potable water to the people of affected areas of Nuapada district is yet to be started even though more than two years have elapsed since it was declared. It was declared in 2015 that the project would be completed in two years with financial assistance of Rs 540 crore from Nabard, but it is yet to take up. Consequently, people in the district continue to depend on groundwater with high fluoride content. “Tube well water of our village contains high degree of fluoride, which is beyond the permissible limit of 1 ppm and it is the cause of the silent killer disease - fluorosis,” said Prafulla Behera (53), a resident of Karlakot village of Boden block, who became crippled due to fluorosis in 1998.  “Mine was the first case of fluorosis to be detected in the district in 1998. I d...

Monday, 06 February 2017 | Ajit Panda | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar 1 2 3 4 5 Although the State’s Department of Revenue and Disaster Management has clarified that the lands under the ayacut area of lift irrigation points should be considered as land under assured irrigation, the district administration of Nuapada is not ready to buy the story. As a result, thousands of farmers of the district have been deprived of due input subsidy for irrigated land. The input subsidy for crop loss of 2015-16 was released this year by the Government and the rate of payment was Rs 6,800 per hectare for non-irrigated land and Rs 13,400 per hectare for land under assured irrigation. However, as the lands under the ayacut area of lift irrigation points have been categorized as rainfed or unirrigated, the farmers have received only Rs 6,800. The Deputy Relief Commissioner of the Department of Revenue and Disaster Management (Special Relief) vide his le...

Friday, 03 February 2017 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar 1 2 3 4 5 Sugarcane crop worth about Rs 4 lakh of a progressive farmer of Khariar town in Nuapada district was recently completely devastated due to fire. Electric cables, water pumps, drip irrigation system and supply pipes valued at Rs 3 lakh were also melted. Over 500 teak plants in the field were also gutted. Ajit Panda, a doctor by profession, has a passion for agriculture, which prompted him to spare much of his time in farming activities. He had cultivated sugarcane in five acre of land and the crop was ready for harvesting. He had already made deals with some juice makers to sell the canes at Rs 600 per quintal. But the fire put on by neighbourhood farmers in their fields spread to his field and destroyed the crop and other properties in a matter of a few minutes before the fire brigade reached. "I had invested about Rs 10 lakh for developing the infrastructu...

Wednesday, 01 February 2017 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar 1 2 3 4 5 The youths of a Dalit basti of Khariar town in Nuapada district have been able to pave a new road to their slum through organised efforts. The locality previously known as “Ghasi Pada” and renamed as Gandhi Nagar by the young generation is inhabited by people of sweeper community. “In spite of being a part of Khariar town, we were deprived of a direct road to link our basti to the town. This new road has given us that opportunity; it is a road to our development,” asserted Surendra Kumar and Bijaya Shahish , residents of Gandhi Nagar, who took an active role in organising the youths of the colony to fight all odds and oppositions against the road construction. Gandhi Nagar is one of the neglected slums of Khariar town. Such negligence has resulted in resentment among the Dalits and they have agitated several times before the NAC demanding creation of ba...