ROURKELA: The proposal for upgradation of Bonai sub-divisional headquarters in Sundargarh district into a Notified Area Council (NAC) continues to remain trapped in red-tapism since 2010.
However, the proposal seems to have crossed the halfway mark with the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water (PR&DW) Department giving the go ahead with a rider. It has asked the Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) Department to modify the earlier proposal and include five of the seven villages in the proposed NAC.
A letter of the H&UD Department dated December 01, 2017 was sent to the district administration informing that the PR&DW Department agreed to the proposal, but asked it to exclude two villages.
Sundargarh ADM Bhaskar Chandra Turuk said a fresh proposal would be sent with help of the District Panchayat Officer citing demographic compositions of Deogaon, Bonai and Barhamusa villages of Bonai panchayat, Kendrikela village of Kendrikela GP and Upurda of Jakeikela, while Uparpada and Uparbahal of Kendrikela would be excluded.
Incidentally, the proposal submitted in 2010 had cited 2001 Census and accordingly, the total population of these five villages was 10,155 with the minimum population criteria being 10,000.Bonai or Bonaigarh is now governed by the Bonai gram panchayat and after getting NAC tag, it would come under urban administration making it eligible for all urban facilities. A few days ago, the issue again came to limelight with villagers raising the demand at the grievance hearing of Collector Vineet Bhardwaj at Bonai.
Bonai MLA of CPM Laxman Munda said the Collector assured to expedite the proposal, adding the proposal involving multiple departments has been caught in red-tapism. He said there should not be further delay in giving Bonai its legitimate dues. Local resident Tapan Dandia said they are not aware why the Uparbahal and Uparpada villages were excluded and even if the population criteria were fulfilled, these two villages should have been kept for larger NAC area.
Convenor of Bonai Action Committee SN Das said Bonai deserved to be declared as an urban local body at the earliest to enable it to get adequate financial resources and technical manpower to ensure sustained growth including planned road, transport networks, drainage, sanitary facilities, piped water supply and street lighting system. He said in periphery areas of Bonai, industrial activities have increased manifold and the nearest urban centre is Rourkela which is about 68 km away.