The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) to act on the issue of artificial floods caused due to the negligence of the State authorities that endangered the life and livelihood of the farmers and villagers in the district.
Acting on a petition filed by a rights activist Radhakanta Tripathy, the apex human rights watchdog passed the order in this regard on Thursday. The complainant, Tripathy, alleged that the Water Resources department had released 3,200 cusecs of water on November 12 last to meet the irrigation needs of farmers in the tail end areas of Kendrapada main canal. Unable to hold the water flow, a 40 feet breach occurred on the left embankment that was already damaged in the monsoon this year, near Balabhadra Nodal School by inundating wards 1,2,3,4 and partly affecting wards 5, 6 and 7 of Kolana gram panchayat under Nischantakoili block. Farmers alleged that due to lack of maintenance, the embankment stretching from Brajarajpatana to Nuagaon was lying in deplorable condition for which the breach occurred.
The farmers of both Nischintakoili and Mahanga blocks, who depend on the Kendrapara canal for irrigating their land, had earlier brought to the notice of the authorities of irrigation sub-divisional office at Chhata and its divisional office at Kendrapara to repair the breach, but in vain.
Over 200 families were marooned due to the breach in the embankment whereas property over lakhs of rupees was damaged. Even, some locals in the area had to take shelter on the canal embankment with their household articles and cattle. The breach led to an acute shortage of drinking water as all the tube wells in these wards were submerged by the overflowing canal water that had badly damaged over 200 acres of paddy fields.
The failure of the State Government to repair the embankment dam and keep a close vigil over the issue resulted in hundreds of people getting marooned. Petitioner Tripathy cited it as a violation of the basic human rights of children, women, senior citizens, farmers and the villagers at large. The inaction and negligence of the State authorities in the present case was an abominable phenomenon of corruption, dereliction of duty and amounts to gross human rights violation, Tripathy alleged.
Tripathy requested the NHRC to direct the State Government to immediately investigate into the case from all possible angles; ensure the victims get their basic needs, including health, education, food, shelter etc; extend benefits of welfare schemes and pay due compensation to all the victims.