The lot of about 10,000 villagers of Charadia Gram Panchayat in Bhadrak district has not changed despite the intervention by the NHRC. It became a panchayat in 1952 comprising nine villages.
The area is in the hinterland of the supposedly developed and thriving Dhamara Port.
This panchayat has no round-the-year access by road. In the nine villages, 40 tube wells push out unhealthy saline-affected water.
The factor was capable of being anticipated as the area is located in the costal belt. The supply of electricity in the area is precarious. Being devoid of ordinary road facilities, the residents do not have proper medical and ambulance services.
Similarly, basic requirements of education, communication and other healthcare facilities are not available to the residents of the area who have to live in a world of their own and accept deprivation as a part of life.
At least four cases have been filed to ensure the basic amenities and bare necessities to the residents by rights activist-cum-lawyer Radhakanta Tripathy. Every time he gets an order.
Three orders have been passed from 2015 till date with a direction to the OHRC to act over the issue.
Another direction was issued to the district administration to solve the problems. However, despite lapse of substantial period of time, the district Collector has not been taking any action in this regard.
The compliance mechanism of the Odisha Government for human rights issues on directives passed by the NHRC and the OHRC is one of the worst, stated Tripathy.