BARGARH: Under containment for the last 42 days, the residents of Katapali village on the outskirts on Bargarh town are finding it tough to make ends meet. The village was declared a containment zone on June 16 after a 76-year-old resident was tested positive for COVID-19.
The man, termed a super-spreader, died on June 18. The 5,205 residents of the village have been suffering on the other side of barbed wire since then. So far, 193 positive cases have been reported from the village.
Even as the district administration has no plans yet to lift the containment, the villagers have started resenting the restriction as it has hit their livelihood. Sarpanch of Katapali panchayat Jamana Sahu said besides farm workers and those working in the town, the village has a sizeable number of weaver and metal craftsmen.
Those working in the urban areas run the risk of losing their jobs due to prolonged absence from their work places. Though the farm workers are managing somehow as agricultural activities are continuing within the village, the artisans are waiting anxiously for return of normalcy.
The weavers and metal workers have stopped making new products as they already have a huge stock which is yet to be sold. Small scale artisans who produce in small quantities too are hit due to unavailability of raw materials.
The containment has also affected the social commitments of the villagers. Haldar Sahu, a local said around eight to nine marriages have been rescheduled in the last 42 days. A few families have postponed marriages and other functions till the end of this year.
The villagers have formed a committee to discuss the issues and convey them to the administration through every possible channel. Vikash Kumar, a local said no higher official of the district administration has visited the village to know of the plight of its residents. "They need to realise that the enforcement has given rise to a host of problems here," he said.
Though Collector Jyoti Ranjan Pradhan could not be contacted for comments on the issue, an official said over 2,800 swab samples have been collected from the village. He said that positive cases from the village have subsided in the last one week and the administration will soon come up with a plan to remove the enforcement systematically. As on Tuesday, 386 cases have been reported from the district of which 73 are active.