It’s been more than a year the Cyclone horrific Titli swept through Gajapati district, creating havoc, especially in Gangabada Panchayat where over more than 16 people had died due to a landslide.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had visited the Panchayat to take stock of the situation and had sanctioned crores of rupees for relief and restoration works. However, it’s really shocking to know about the living condition of Manikapatna villagers of Gangabada Panchayat, where minimum amenities are a far cry.
The Gangabada Panchayat is on border of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. The villagers are staying in darkness as power is yet to be restored to the area. As the village is situated in a mountain top, it gets dark very soon and it has been more than a year the villagers have been staying without electricity.
Nearly 45 families comprising about 150 members are residing in Manikapatna village. Some area of the village is under the Odisha Government and some part under Andhra Government. The houses constructed under Andhra Government area have electricity but the houses under Odisha do not have electricity, During Titli, the Andhra Pradesh Government provided electricity and all kinds of facilities to the people of the same village within a short frame of time. The Odisha Government also provided electricity to the people of the same village in March 2019 but within a few days the electrical transformer got burnt.
Both Christians and Hindus are residing in the village. When the whole world celebrated Christmas with lights, ironically darkness had not lifted from Manikapatna village.
The Hindu families of the village celebrated Bhogi and Pongal festivals recently on January 14 and 15 under same situation.
Though the villagers have ventilated their grievances to the district administration but have got no relief yet. On September 16 last, a Grievance Cell was held at Gangabada Panchayat Office in the presence of the Gajapati district Collector, The villagers demanded immediate steps to restore electricity by installation of a new transformer.
SouthCo Executive Engineer Gangagouri Prasad Patnaik had assured that very soon a new transformer would be installed. However, it’s been more than four months and the promise is not fulfilled.
Notably, it’s seen that in an Odisha Government electric pole, an AP Government streetlight has been fitted providing light for the Manikapatna villagers. The children are dependent on the street light for their exam preparations.
The villagers meanwhile have warned of taking to streets if electricity was not resumed in the locality soon.
SouthCo Junior Engineer Dababrata Sahoo said the villagers were demanding for a 16-KV transformer, whose stock was not available.