Tourists here in Mayurbhanj continue to face trouble, as Similipal residents' Rasta Roko agitation against Government negligence has entered the sixth consecutive day on Thursday.
Road blockades at three different places have thrown normal life out of gear in tourist spots like Joranda, Chahala and Barehipani, since Saturday. Consequently, authorities, since Sunday, have closed these three tourist spots for the visitors.
According to the agitators, they have been long neglected by the Government and the administration. The existing conditions in the Gram Panchayats of Astakuanr, Gudgudia and Barehipani inside Similipal, even after 75 years of the country's independence, remain very much pitiable and deplorable. Their demands like construction of a permanent road from Kalikaprasad to Gadsimilipal, establishment of mobile tower in the area, conversion of wooden roads into concrete roads in Similipal, implementation of Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana in these deprived villages and according top priority to local youths in employment in these areas have not been met so far, the agitators alleged.
Similipal Vikash Parishad president Mohanty Birua, Barehipani Sarpanch Parvati Alda, Panchayat Samiti Member Jujhar Bansingh, former Gudgudia Sarpanch Mataram Ho and Astakuanr's Kerse Banra and Rameswar Badra, presently leading hundreds of protestors of Astakuanr, Gudgudia and Barehipani Panchayats, have now urged the authorities for immediate attention and intervention to end the stalemate in the larger interest of the common people and tourists of Similipal.
In the three Panchayat areas inside Similipal, it may be noted, about 20,000 people, comprising mostly tribal Kohla community, have been, since long, living and languishing in a very poor, far-from-satisfactory conditions. Though some time back a survey, at the initiative and instance of Mayurbhanj MP and Union Minister B Tudu, was conducted to build a Kalikaprasad-Lulung 80-k.m.-long tourists corridor, no follow-up action was visible on the ground in the matter. State Government's laxity and indifference is responsible for this, it is alleged.