Even as the nation celebrated the 66th Republic Day last week, the Government has failed to give justice to freedom fighters and martyrs of the district here. A glowing example is an old house of Sananda Swain, one of the four martyrs of Krushnanagar village under Bari block of Jajpur district. The house is now a pile of bricks where weeds have overgrown.
Swain had participated in the Quit India movement in 1942 and along with three others had been shot dead by the British force while obstructing its way to the village. “Though the history of revolt against the British rulers is taught at schools and colleges and songs eulogizing four martyrs such as Sanada Swain, Hadibandhu Panda of Krushnanagar village , Sauti Mallick of Srirampur and Mayadhar Bhuyan of Hatasahi are sung dutifully by the people in the meetings, the martyrs and their family members are left to fend for themselves. They laid down their lives while fighting against the British police on August 22, 1942 on the Raksha Bandhan day at Kalamatia during the “Quit India” movement called by Mahatma Gandhi,” said Purosotam Nayak (93), a former Congress MlA, noted freedom fighter and president of State Freedom Fighters’ Association.
History of freedom movement in Odisha will remain incomplete without the mention of the supreme sacrifice of the martyrs of Kalamatia. A large number of villagers of these areas fought against the British rule during the freedom struggle. On the other hand, many people had also succumbed to the might of the British administration, but all the four martyrs and many villagers chose to rebel against the British Raj,” said Nayak.
On August 22, 1942, about 200 villages set afire a village post office at Kaipada and prevented the British police to enter the village to arrest the freedom fighters but the police managed to enter the village in six boats and opened fire and killed four persons and injured many near a pond at Kalamatia, said the historian Dr Bijaya Mohanty.
Jameswar Shukla , grand-son of martyr Hadibandhu Panda of Krushnanagar, said, “ Nothing had been done by the State or Central Government despite repeated appeals to develop the birth places of the martyrs.” Ranjan Mallick, grand-son of martyr Sauti Mallick of Srirampur village said that there was no Government grant to help his poor family. “I have been running from pillar to post to get money under Indira Awas Yojana to construct a house. But the authority is yet to provide me a house,” he lamented.
To remember the sacrifice of the four martyrs in 1975, some villagers had erected a martyr tower (Sahid Stambha) at Kalamati. But rivulets of human excreta and piles of rotting garbage decorate the vicinity of the martyrs’ tower these days. To add insult to injury, the villages Kalamatia, Krushnanagar, Srirampur and Hatasahi too remain neglected.
“The villages are neither connected by any bridge, nor do they have access to health services. This is despite the fact many leaders including Ministers, Chief Ministers and Governors visited Kalamatia to pay rich tribute to the martyrs many times in the past,” said Pranakrushna Mallick, a villager of Kalamatia. Narayan Chandra Beuri (81), an eyewitness to the police firing in Kalamatia said, “This place has not changed at all. It remains what it was 60 years ago. Before independence, we were slaves of the British.
When they went away, they placed before us Ministers and bureaucrats who are more after their self-interest.”