While the entire town was celebrating Chaiti, the cultural extravaganza of Rayagada, for five days, its real architects like tent house man, the light and sound technician, the ground sweepers and cleaners, the traffic home guards and CRPF jawans spent sleepless nights to keep the surrounding clean and safe.
There was every chance of short circuit, but the light and sound system functioned perfectly with the magic touch of Sashi Bhusan Rao and his boys. Similarly, Purna Brahma, along with his committed team members, erected around 225 tents for exhibiting the achievements of the district administration and a few private entities.
The driver of the truck carrying water tanker sprinkled water on the play ground of Gobinda Chandra Deb (GCD) High School, where the festival was conducted. The boys in the Aditya Graphics printing press under the guidance of Sri Satyabrat Maharana worked on a war footing and brought out the souvenir “Chaitali” to be inaugurated by guests.
The sweepers had round the clock to clean the filth. “Though we know that these back stage architects are being directed by an officer or the owner of the enterprise, nevertheless their commitment and sincerity could only make the festival pompous. But unfortunately these unsung heroes were forgotten to be felicitated,” said coordinator of Rayagada Citizens’ Forum Ajaya Rath.
The feeling was corroborated by convenor, District RTI Forum, Rabindra Patakhandal who was anguished over the VIP culture by the senior district level officers. All their vehicles bore tags as ‘Chaitio VIP’ though permanent red coloured boards exhibiting their designation and department were affixed to their vehicles. This was certainly the red beacon syndrome, said Patakhandal.
Rayagada has eleven blocks. Except Gunupur, where the block level Chaiti got merged with the sub-divisional Chaiti, each block had a block level festival. Though this year it was decided to hold the Chaiti at Gunupur for one day, after an initial hue and cry by the locals, three days sub-divisional Chaiti was celebrated there. Formation of several committees for smooth management of the festival including mobillising finance was a daunting task.
According to a highly qualified enterprising farmer of Padmapur named Rajiv Sahu, the entire administration at block and district came to standstill for this purpose and the funding source is also questionable. “We are pained to see slow or no progress of our basic demands like a well-constructed main road, safe drinking water project or street lights, etc which are put before the administration since years; but when we met some district level officials in this regard, they were buying time in the pretext of Chaiti,” said Sahu. Similar feeling was also expressed by Radheshyam Panda, an inhabitant of Therubali. Satya Narayan Gantayat expressed his displeasure over the facilities provided for the differently abled or Dibyangs at the Chaiti venue.
Bijaya Mishra, yet another farmer entrepreneur and State level soft ball coach, was concerned about the originality of models created by Government departments. For example, the watershed department hired craftsmen from Bhawanipatna to showcase their model and achievements. Though at the entrance, a flex banner depicted about Global Positioning System(GPS) in its content, the person present there could not properly explain the methods to prevent duplicity at ground zero. “The peoples’ representatives like local Rajya Sabha MP during a recent planning board meeting in the district pointed out duplicity in plantation work on the same piece of land by different stakeholders like horticulture, watershed, forest in Kashipur. In this context, GPS bears high importance,” said Mishra. According to the proponent of the festival, Chaiti projects the hidden cultural talents of the local groups by conserving the tradition and culture of communities and showcases the achievements of the Government and private enterprises.
But according to Kumari Anuradha Panigrahi, who is a renowned singer, “I am pained that this year and I, as a local artiste, was not invited to perform.”
Though the local mega industries like JK Papers ltd, IMFA, Utkal Alumina and Vedanta contribute significantly to the growth of the district, they did not put up their stalls. last year, there were severe financial irregularities.