layman's space

Basanti Gahir is one of the bold women of Kalahandi district, who has set an example for others by walking alone on a long twisted path. Basanti is a widow leading her family of four children alone since the death of her husband in 2010. "One late evening I heard that he was lying bleeding on the road in the outskirts of our village. I ran to the spot to rescued him. He said he had been wounded by an unidentified animal in the darkness. I treated him in different hospitals but he succumbed to his injuries exactly after three months of the attack," reveals Basanti and further narrates how she has struggled day in and day out to manage the family single-handedly.  "Working as a wage worker for long three years, I was earning about 12 kg of paddy per day for agriculture labour and Rs 80 for working in construction sites at that time. It was very difficult to manage the family with that meager income. I wanted to provide education to my children," she adds. Jaya Gahir, ...

A report of suicide attempt by a farmer has been reported from Sinapali block of Nuapada district. Krishna Dandsena of Dhingiamunda village of the block has revealed that her husband Romanchan Dandsena (33)attempted suicide on Friday afternoon in his farm by consuming pesticide. The cause of suicide attempt as per Krishna was failure to sell paddy in mandi on one hand and disconnection of electricity supply to a lift irrigation point, which resulted in loss of Rabi in his three acres of land. "We had cultivated Rabi paddy in three acres of land, which perished as electricity supply to the lift irrigation point was cut off. We requested officials to consider till we sell our paddy, but they didn't listen. Besides we failed to sell our paddy in Mandi because of token lapse," said Krishna.  Romanchan was issued token on January 17 to sell 83 packets of paddy, but paddy was not procured and on February 17, the token lapsed. "My husband was in tension, when Mandi official...

Namuna Chinda of Kholi village in Nagpada Panchayat is engaged in land development work started by the district administration last week. She is lifting earth of five by ten feet pits on four sides her plot to make an embankment. The embankment will help conserve rain water in each plot that will help her cultivate paddy in the land that she got under FRA. "It needed leveling and bunds; we are doing it with our family labour under MGNREGA," says Namuna. "The officials have assured us of Rs 500 per pit of ten by ten (100 sq. ft.)," she adds. In last one week with three working persons in her family she has dug 12 pits of hundred square feet each that will fetch her Rs 6,000 in total. "The family will earn Rs 900 per day in an average and it is certainly a good amount to motivate the family not to migrate," says Jaisingh Chinda of the village further informing that most households in village migrate to the southern States to work in brick kilns due to lack o...

Maniram Sabar and Dasi Sabar are two small farmers of Bargaon village in Khariar block of Nuapada district. They have been permitted to sale 70 quintals of paddy from 3.24 acres of land, i.e. about 22 quintals per acre. Likewise, Satyapriya Mund of the same village with 9.5 acres of land in total has been issued 11 tokens which will allow him to sale 1,050 quintals i.e. above 100 quintals per acre. "Not at all possible," says Sanjay Tiwari, a farmer of Bargaon village further adding that Satyapriya should have got 150 quintal at the highest at the rate of 19 quintals per acre in irrigated lands and 13 quintals for unirrigated. "I am astonished how these farmers were allowed to sale such huge quantity" adds he.  The master farmers list prepared by the Civil Supply department for Bargaon Panchayat has many such cases, which helps the millers to legalize thousands of quintals of illegally purchased paddy from farmers through brokers in distressed rate. "This is ti...

 https://www.dailypioneer.com/2020/state-editions/sad-story-of-missing-migrant-of-nuapada.html Dusila Bag of Amguda village under Boden block of Nuapada district has been desperately running to the concerned labour broker since last two weeks to enquire about her husband Rahasa. Her family members allege that one Kumuda Bag of Bodlapada, who operates as a local labour dalal for a labour contractor called Rehman had forcibly taken Rahasa on December 4 when Rahasa was returning home from a threshing field. "We heard from villagers about him being forcibly taken by Kumuda in a jeep," said Dusila, who has difficulty in hearing. "Kumuda later confirmed that he has sent Rahasa to Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh to work in a construction site," added Rahasa's father Charansing. Rahasa had taken a loan of Rs 5,000 from Kumuda during the Nuakhai festival. Family members guess that Kumuda might have forced him to go to Vijayawada as he could not repay the amount in time.  Ka...

 https://www.dailypioneer.com/2020/state-editions/farmland-waterlogged-as-garbage-clogs-streams.html Streams and revulets running inside Khariar town and in the vicinity of the town carrying runoff during rain to Sundar river have been clogged due to weeds and plastic wastes, which has turned out to be a menace for the farmers of the area. "Our farm lands are water logged due to blockade of the drainage system. I had completed paddy transplantion in my lands a couple of days ago, which will die due to the water logging," said Hitesh Bagartti whose lands lay on the bank of the stream. The stream carrying runoff from the forests in the north of the town and collecting household discharges releases water with wastes to the Udanti river near Nehna village. "It was a perennial stream once upon a time, but due to dumping of wastes, it looks like a drain," lamented an old man of the locality. Farmers of Khariar town have drawn attention of the administration several times ...

 https://www.dailypioneer.com/2020/state-editions/n---pada-dug-well-beneficiaries-to-get-their-dues.html Following a tweet of news on nonpayment of NREGS dues to dug-well beneficiaries published in The Pioneer and another daily newspaper, the Nuapada district administration has taken immediate steps to enable the beneficiaries to get their dues back from the corrupt field functionaries. Pansingh Paharia and Chaitanya Majhi of Gorabeda hamlet of Nangalbod village in Sinapali block had constructed dug-wells under the employment guarantee scheme. Pansingh had received about Rs 14,300 against his work and Chaitanya got only Rs 17,800 although he had almost completed the construction. The information in the NREGS web, however, revealed that more than Rs 60,000 was released to different workers who worked in the construction of Pansingh's dug-well. Likewise, an amount of Rs 50,000 had been released against Chaitanya's construction. These irregularities were published in the newspaper...

 https://www.dailypioneer.com/2020/state-editions/bidder-selected-illegally-for-quarry-lease-in-n-pada.html Conflicting stands taken by the Sub Collector, Nuapada and the tehsil level tender selection committee, Khariar in selecting successful bidders for leasing out of Rishigaon stone quarry-1 in Khariar tehsil has led to suspicion over the fairness of the tendering process. The tender committee of Khariar tehsil, by taking the view that non submission of money receipt of cost of tender paper alongwith bid application would make the application invalid, had rejected the application of one of the bidders Ritesh Agrawal and notified Manoj Tiwari as the successful bidder. However, the Sub-Collector, Nuapada bypassing the decision of the committee, has issued instructions to the Tehsildar to select Agrawal as successful bidder. Tender notification as advertised in newspapers for lease of the stone quarry stated that money receipt is one of the mandatory bid documents to be submitted w...

 https://www.dailypioneer.com/2020/state-editions/dug-well-scheme-irregularities-galore-in-n-pada.html Pansingh Paharia of Golabeda village in Nangalbod gram panchayat under Sinapali block is a beneficiary of dug-well scheme under MGNREGS. According to information available in the MGNREGA website, an amount of Rs 61,388 has been spent for the construction of a well, where a total of 35 persons have worked in nine job cards and 206 person days have been generated. The total estimated cost for a dug well under the scheme is Rs 1.6 lakh, thus the work status in the MGNREGA website still shows "ongoing", which means more funds can be spent for completion of the project. Now let us see what is the output of the spent fund. Pansingh shows a small well of 8 ft diameter located in front of his house and says "this is the well". "I was paid Rs 14,304 for the work," he adds. Although Pansingh could not say clearly how much he spent in the construction, he claimed th...

 https://www.dailypioneer.com/2020/state-editions/bleak-future-stares-nuapada-orphan-kids-in-face.html Umakant Majhi (7) and his two younger siblings Siba (5) and Malti (5 months) of Bhainsadani village under Boden block of Nuapada district are now orphans after the loss of their mother, Madana, who died due to snake bite on Wednesday. Their father, Krushna had died six months ago due to tuberculosis. The snake bite occurred at about 4 am when Madana was sleeping inside her house with the children. She was immediately taken to the CHC, Boden by her brother-in-law. "The condition was serious; so the doctor referred her to the Sub-divisional hospital at Khariar, where she died," said the brother-in-law. "My son-in-law succumbed to his chronic illness without getting proper treatment; the doctors could not save the life my daughter. I am unable to think, how would the children lead their lives," said the grandmother of the children. According to the villagers, the fami...

 https://www.dailypioneer.com/2020/state-editions/life-skills-educated-girls-turn-good-entrepreneurs.html It’s always said where there is a will there is a way. Ahalya Rana (20) of Silda village in Dumerpani panchayat of Nuapada district sells grocery items of about Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 per day in her general store. She is now proud of her status as a businessperson. "I was very shy and skeptical about starting a business; but after my association with NGO ASHA Odisha, my opinion changed. They trained me in life skills education and sexual reproductive health rights (SRHR). It was not exactly about running business but skills that made me confident," says Ahalya, Ahalya is now leading a Self-Help Group (SHG) in her village that helps poor women get financial support to run small trades and, at the same time, raises development-related issues with panchayat and Government offices.Hemlata Sahu (19) is another such entrepreneur doing business in her village Baloda. She couldn...

 https://www.dailypioneer.com/2020/state-editions/nregs-boon-for-jobseekers-in-nuapada.html The fact that MGNREGS, at the moment, can provide job to thousands of job seekers in a district like Nuapada, is proved from the online data in THE MGNREGS website. According to the web information on e-Muster Roll generation as on June 4, the number of workers engaged was above 47,000. "It is significant in the context of lockdown and joblessness," say the officials monitoring the scheme in the district. "We will continue to provide job, till the people are interested to work," says the Assistant Programme Officer (APO) of MGNREGS, Boden block. A visit to work sites and interaction with the people working under MGNREGS speaks a lot of the achievements this year. Bidyadhara Hans and his family members belonging to Dotto village under Karangamal Panchayat of Boden block have already completed 114 days of work since April. The family has earned Rs 33,972 till now, that comes to...

  People in the society irrespective of class, caste and creed are coming forward to put their efforts in the fight against coronavirus. It is even evident in a backward district like Nuapada. When some are contributing in terms of money to the PM Care Fund and Chief Minister Relief Fund, others are providing food to migrant workers stranded in different places of the district due to lockdown. Most encouraging is that the Self Help Groups (SHGs) of women, which are engaged in small businesses to earn their livelihoods, have come forward in large numbers to contribute towards the fight against corona. SHGs from different parts of the district have contributed Rs 1.92 lakh to the CM’s Relief Fund as a support to fight COVID-19. One to two SHGs in each panchayat have taken responsibility to provide hot cooked meals to indigent and destitute people, who at present are above 11,000. The amount spent by the SHGs to meet the food expenses is being reimbursed on regular basis by the distri...

  Satrughan Paharia, 65, of Bendrabahal village under Khariar block is a bamboo basket weaver. Despite his old age, he makes six to eight baskets of different sizes every week and earns between Rs 200 to Rs 250 by selling them in weekly haats at Bargaon and Sanmaheswar villages. "This is the only source of my living, but due to lockdown, I am unable to sell my products these days. Had the Government not given three months’ rice and pension in advance, I would have starved," says Satrughan. Debria Paharia, 65, has four members in his family. His son Abhiram migrated to a brick kiln in Secunderabad in mid-January. "He was forced to go there to repay a loan of about Rs 20,000 incurred for the surgery of his wife in the district hospital. The doctors said the baby was dead in the womb," says Debria. The family got 60 kg of rice in advance for three months and Debria got Rs 2,000 as four months’ advance old age pension, which brought great succour for them. "We cook...

  The Paharia tribals of Nuapada district, who eke out their living from basket weaving, are the worst-affected people during the corona-induced lockdown. The prices of different items they make range from Rs 20 to a maximum of Rs 100 depending on their sizes and shapes. They move to different weekly haats nearby their villages to sell their products. Another way for sale of the products is through middlemen, who visit the villages at regular intervals. However, due to the lockdown, neither the weekly haats are running nor middlemen are turning up. "I have 80 baskets in my house ready for the haat, but I’m unable to sell them," says Guri Banbasi of Baijalpur in Gorla panchayat of Sinapali block. She would have sold those products for Rs 3,000 in normal time. Jujesti Banbasi of this village has products worth Rs 1,380. There are 14 Paharia households in Baijalpur; and all of them are in a similar condition. The total number of households reeling under such a situation would be...

  Hundreds of migrant workers of Nuapada district have returned from their work places in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak triggering apprehensions about infection among the villagers. They demanded health checkup of the migrants. Over 50 migrant workers belonging to Liad village of Sinapali block returned home on Sunday and Monday. 38 of them reported their arrival in GP office at Makhapadar, but the rest did not inform. According to the Sarpanch, eight of the workers were suffering from cough and cold. Tension prevailed inside the village for sometimes. The Sarpanch wanted to shelter them in the school building, but the people of a Dalit basti located near the school opposed. The workers had to stay near the river overnight until the health check up of eight persons was conducted in the Sinapali CHC the following day. The workers are now living in their houses. Most of these workers returned from Mumbai. Others returned from Chennai and Telengana. Two of the workers were work...

  A total of 271 persons of 78 migrant families including 64 children from Nuapada, Kalahandi and Balangir districts, forcefully detained by Binod Chamber Brick kiln in Athur village under Ponneri Taluk in Thiruvallur district, Tamilnadu were rescued by a group of activists/journalists with the help of International Justice Mission (IJM) on Sunday. The rescue operation began on Sunday morning by IJM in the presence of the local administration of Thiruvallur district and by evening all the detained workers were shifted to a temporary shelter in Red hills under the care and protection of Government agencies. The operation by IJM began, when a tweet about the plight of workers in the brick kiln, posted by this correspondent on Friday evening last was retweeted by several people and finally when Tara Krishnaswamy, an activist based at Bangalore and Pranayea Manjari, a Mumbai based activist, requested the IJM to intervene. According to an FIR filed by one of the detained workers, Gobard...

  Eight-year-old Dipti, daughter of a migrant worker, living with her parents in a brick kiln in Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu received a phone call of this correspondent on Sunday evening and without waiting for any conversation from the site, she hurriedly said, "We are leaving the kiln now; father is packing our things." She was elated because the family's long wait for returning to their village had ended due to intervention by some activists and an NGO called the International Justice Mission (IJM).  Dipti along with her parents Gobardhan and Jema and two younger siblings Tripti (4) and Udit (1) was in a brick kiln of Tamil Nadu. The family had left the village six months ago to work in the kiln named Vinod Chamber located in Athur village of Solabharam block in Thiruvallur district. The couple had taken an advance payment of Rs 60,000 from a Sardar (labour contractor) in November to work in the kiln for about five months. Dipti was in class II in a village scho...

  Rajaram Herna and eight other migrant workers reached their home district Nuapada on Tuesday night. Three of them came from Chennai and the rest from Tirupati, all riding bicycles, covering hundreds of miles. Tuna Herna and eight others had reached a day before. All 18 workers are in quarantine in the TMC of Farsara in Boden block. "We were working in different construction sites, getting paid according to the kind of works. The unskilled were being paid Rs 350 per day and works that needed skills like painting and risky activities like scaffold fixing fetched a little more earning. I was engaged in scaffolding work, thus was paid Rs 450 a day," said Herna. "We were stranded for more than a month, tried to get support from the administration, but none came to our rescue. So we decided to ride in bicycles," added he. Some of these workers had left with little saving that they spent in buying second hand bicycles and those who didn't have saving asked their fami...

  The readiness of the Nuapada district administration to face the situation in the aftermath of return of migrants to the district from their work destinations is two-fold: first to keep the returnees in quarantine for two weeks and second to provide them work under the MGNREGS. According to official information, a total of 670 temporary medical centres with about 16,000 beds are in place to keep migrants, returning from other States, in quarantine. On the other hand, the district has been given a target of 72 lakh person days of labour budget under MGNREGS to provide job to the people in the current financial year, which is a three-fold increase from last year's labour budget under the MGNREGS. A survey done by the ASHAs and AWWs in first week of April to estimate the number of migrant workers staying outside the district stood at 70,000. About 46,000 people, mostly migrant workers, have expressed their willingness to return by registering themselves in the Panchayats and through...

  A block-level public hearing on MGNREGS and pension schemes was held at Komna on Tuesday. The Social Audit (SA) team of OSSAAT (Odisha Society for Social Audit and Transparency), an independent organisation formed by the State Government to conduct regular social audit of MGNREG and other Government schemes, presented the findings of the audits they had undertaken for the FY 2018-19. Several irregularities like money paid to dead people under pension scheme (Rs 98,000 in total), nonpayment of wages to workers under MGNREGS, documents missing from case records of different projects under MGNREGS, noncooperation (not providing case records) by field functionaries of block and other line departments to the SA team, etc., were found. In some of the case records of works in Bhela Panchayat, the SA team had found that, the bills and vouchers submitted by material suppliers had no GST number. The block level Public Hearing Committee chaired by the Executive Engineer, DRDA directed the B...

  Khariar town in Nuapada district has several traditional water bodies (TWBs) known as Bandha and Muda. Most of these TWBs,  although in a dilapidated state, are still useful for different purposes for local people and for geoenviromental reasons. “Most of the Bandhas in Khariar town are hundreds of year old. From archeological records, it is found that one of the Bandhas named Tira Bandha was excavated during 13th century AD. Likewise, the Gudelbandha, Nilji Bandha, Bishi Bandha, Mara Bandh, Kamla Sagar, Mukta Sagar, Khangal Munda and Hiramunda are centuries old water bodies excavated by the erstwhile kings, but unfortunately they are in a bad shape after being taken over by the Government due to lack of maintenance and renovation,” says archeologist Jitamitra Prashad Singh Deo. “The water bodies served all types of water requirements of the people in the past. At the same time, they were instrumental in recharging ground water,” he adds. It is true that all the water bodies...