Ignored by govt, Odisha villagers join hands to build bridge themselves

After their repeated pleas for the contruction of a bridge over the Khadakhai river fell on deaf ears, villagers in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district pooled in money and built the bridge with their own labour.

Rairangpur (Odisha): Fed up with the apathetic attitude of the government and local political leaders, villagers in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district pooled in money and built a bridge over the Khadakhai river.

The Khadakhai river, which has its origin in the Suleipat region of Mayurbhanj district, flows between the Mayurdar and Banakati panchayats. While Balikota village under Bijatala block lies on one side of the river, Murumdihi village under Kusumi block is on the other side of the river.

Residents of as many as 13 villages, including Balikota under Bijatala block are dependent on the medical centre, post office, bank, markets, police outpost, iron ore mines and educational institutions which are all located on the other side of the river in the Suleipat area.

Though the villagers somehow managed to cross the river during the summer season, things get extremely dangerous once the monsoons arrive. Balikota gets totally cut-off from the Suleipat area during the rainy season as water flows at a height of about six feet. Small children to elderly people, everybody had to cross the river on foot, putting their lives at stake.

The other option would be to take a long, circuitous route to get to the other side during emergencies, but this would mean villagers had to incur a lot of extra expenditure.

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Villagers had been regularly running to political leaders and administrative authorities with their plea to construct a bridge across the river, but they never received any positive response.

Fed up with the apathetic attitude of the authorities of both the blocks, the villagers of Balikota and Murumdihi took a big step. The villages joined hands, collected financial contributions from the people, and finally constructed a concrete bridge across the river.

However, since the bridge built by the villagers is a temporary one, they are still demanding the construction of a permanent bridge across the river.

The construction of the concrete bridge by the money and labour contributed by the villagers has set the right example for the government machinery to follow.

Read:Ignored by govt, Odisha villagers build bridge on their own every year