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...