The villagers of lokanathprasad under Chandibaunsamula in Rajnagar block are now a worried lot. The Brahmani river is crawling menacingly and has eroded some parts of the village.
Since monsoon season has set in, they are apprehending troubles as during the rainy season the river water crawls towards the village by damaging the embankment every year during these days.
According to locals, once upon a time about a dozen of villages existed under the Chandibaunsamula gram panchayat of Rajnagar block. In last four decades, at least six villages, including lahuni, Mangalpur, Gopinathpur, Ichhapur,Beruhankola and Nuagaon, have lost their existence due to erosion by the Brahmani and the Kharasrota rivers. Due to the crawling of rivers, meanwhile, a threat is looming large over the villages of Jaduchandrapur, Dakhinaveda, Jhadakata, Dholamara, lokanathprasad and Kusunpur.
According to locals, river erosion and flooding apart, they are also apprehending troubles from the estuarine crocodiles which enter into the villages through the flood water.
According to an octogenarian person, Purusottam Rout, when he was about 40 years, his family was staying at the opposite side of river embankment. But, with the passage of time, his house and agriculture fields have taken watery grave.
“Not only I, but several other fellow villagers too became homeless within last four decades. losing the house and agriculture field due to river erosion, about 30 families have been staying in Palanda village whereas 25 families are staying at Jarimula and 50 other families are residing at Kaloni village. In last 30 years, I have seen my villages shifted at least thrice for river erosion after the houses were eaten up. The administration also constructed embankment as many as three times to save the villages from river erosion, but in vain,” added Rout.
According to Chandibaunsamula sarpanch Mohan Kumar Das, though the erosion hit villagers continue to voice their anger against the apathy over the years for not taking measures to stop rivers erosion , but the persistent pleas to initiate safety measures have fallen flat.
On February 9, 2004 , Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had paid a visit to the Chandibaunsamula village and had laid foundation stone for packing stone and spur in the river embankment at Dakhinaveda to lokanath prasad village . Though 12 years have been passed but the stone and spur packing works in the river embankment have not been completed, alleged locals.
Before the last general election, former MlA of Rajnagar Alekha Jena, too, laid foundation stone for stone packing with an estimated cost of Rs90 lakh. later, spur packing work started but the contractor skipped half way by doing substandard work.
When contacted Aul Saline Embankment Executive Engineer Jugal Kishore Tripathy stated that the situation is alarming .The matter has been taken up by the State High Power Committee which has cleared a proposal for spur packing with an estimated cost of about Rs13 crore and the within a couple of months, the spur packing work would start, he informed.