nIn protest against the delay in construction of a bypass along Barbil town, members of the Barbil civil society have decided to stage an indefinite hunger strike in front of the Keonjhar Collectorate from December 6.
Over a thousand of trucks carrying iron ores and others minerals move on the city roads, creating serious traffic problems, everyday. While commuters have faced difficulties in moving to destinations, dust pollution has hit normal life in the town.
Roads have not been repaired for the last 15 years. In the meantime, the population has been increased manifold and so also the number of TB and asthma patients.
According to reports, 133 cases of TB have been registered in the Barbil Government medical during the current year till October-end.
Keeping in view the acute suffering of local people, the then distict Collector Dr Tirumalla Naik had sanctioned Rs 49 crore from the DMF fund in 2017-18 to construct a bypass connecting Roida to Nalda so that movement of lorries can be diverted outside the Barbil town and traffic problem can be solved. Immediately, a survey was done and it was found that near about 28 acres of forestland were required. Conversion of forestland needs approval of the National Green Tribunal (NGT). But after transfer of Tirumalla, the dream project of Barbil was stalled.
As nobody listened to them, the affected people, led by Padma Shri Tulasi Munda, had sat on the dharna and each of them sent post cards to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik seeking early construction of the bypass. This too didn’t yield any result.
In the last development, Collector Ashish Thakre assured people on November 21 that he would take all steps to resolve the problem. But he couldn’t give any time limit for completion of the project. Unhappy over this, residents have now threatened to go on a hunger strike from December 6.