NUAPADA DALITS BUILD ROAD TO CUTOFF SLUM

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Wednesday, 01 February 2017 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in Bhubaneswar

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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 basic facilities like road and drainage, but without any avail.
“That is why we decided to do it by our own and approached Rajya Sabha MP AV Swamy for some financial help. Swamy is a great man; he expressed solidarity with us and immediately agreed to provide Rs 5 lakh from his MP LAD fund to pave the road,” added Shahish.
The length of the road paved now is about 800 metres. Only two 200 meters out of that passes through a Government land and the rest has been laid in private plots.
“The main opposition came from a private college which claimed that the Government land has been allotted to them by the Revenue department. Paving of the road was a very difficult task as it was opposed by the management of the college. They complained before the district Collector alleging that we were grabbing their land. But in reality, the land belongs to the Revenue department,” explained Shahish.
“We are grateful to the private land owners who left space in their plots for paving of the road,” added he.
Landowners who did not agree to spare their plots were paid money and the fund was generated through local contributions. “It is a great achievement and we are grateful to all those who helped us in our endeavour. We express our heartfelt thanks to the members of District Press Club especially Ajit Panda, Tapan Dash and Chitta Ranjan Deo for their cooperation from the beginning,” said the youths. 

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