ROURKELA: Birmitrapur still lives in the shadow of it past. A town that once dreamt of prosperity looks like a ghost. Development has eluded it; backwardness has remained at its heart. Outside the focus of the government, it paints a picture of neglect.
The town, over 120 years of age, is considered ‘dead’ with little scope of economic growth and dwindling civic amenities. Little livelihood resources mean majority of the native tribals and migrant population live in abject penury.
Originally named Raipur under the then Gangpur princely state, the town was renamed as Birmitrapur after the Gangpur prince Birmitra Singh Deo, the son of the Gangpur king Sundargarh Singh Deo, when the East India Company set up of Bisra Stone Lime (BSL). Decades later, dolomite and limestone mining remains its only identity with no significant development in other sectors.
The town has no other industry or business eco-system except for the ailing PSU mining company. Majority of people are from the labour class working in adjacent sponge iron plants in Kuarnmunda, plants and factories in Kalunga and Rourkela and in the construction sector. Tribal people with land holding still engage in traditional farming.
Birmitrapur’s healthcare system is crumbling and other sectors are lagging behind too. Town residents depend primarily on Birmitrapur Community Health Centre apart from a small nursing home and some private clinics. For anything critical, be it livelihood, better healthcare or education, they are heavily dependent on Rourkela. The town has 25 primary and three government high schools; there are two private high schools with CBSE and ICSE affiliations. It has a government-aided composite college and one private junior college.
As regards civic amenities, there is not a single lodging hotel or a park or a proper bus stand. The single track railway line meant for mineral transport runs a lone passenger train.
The town came into existence in 1910 when the Birds Group under the East India Company set up BS for dolomite and limestone mining. Nothing else happened. With closure of the nearby Purunapani mines of SAIL and deteriorating financial condition of its economic backbone BSL from 2010, things went from bad to worse.
Incidentally, unencumbered government land is a problem for development works. Half of the town area is owned by BSL while tribal people refuse to part with their agriculture land.
After independence, due to adequate population and flourishing economy, the town was accorded Notified Area Council (NAC) status in 1960 and then upgraded to municipality in 1969. Back then BSL’s workforce alone was above 18,000 of the total town population. Now, it is the only urban centre whose population growth stagnated or dropped with about 33,400 people as per the 2011 census. With no other sources of income, the annual holding tax revenue of the municipality stands at just Rs 6 lakh.
Birmitrapur MLA Shankar Oram said barring fringe pockets along the National Highway 143 and few other areas, rest parts of the municipality do not have proper roads, drains and street lights.
While the town has 11 wards, many interior human habitations like Patratoli, Tungritoli, Mundatoli and others lack basic infrastructure like motorable roads, Oram said, adding that he has been insisting for a master plan for proper development of the town.
A proposal to set up a joint venture cement plant either by BSL or by SAIL to revive Birmitrapur’s economy has not made any progress and in the current circumstances, revival of BSL is critical to save the town’s economy from further deterioration, Oram said.
On the other hand, executive officer of Birmitrapur Municipality Sambit Dash said the civic body is delivering all services and schemes to the residents and carrying out necessary development works with government funding.