UMERKOTE: You name it, they lack it. What they do not lack is resolve to survive despite odds. Contaminated water, absence of roads, lack of electricity, no anganwadis, schools, nor healthcare facilities sum up state of affairs in Jampani village in Patkhalia panchayat under Chandahandi block in Nabarangpur district.
Situated on a hilltop, the village can be traced near the border of Jharigaon-Chandahandi block which is 5 kms from Mundiguda village in Jharigaon block. Around 45 families of Gouda and Santa communities have been living in the village in a miserable condition for more than 50 years sans any facility. Mostly forest-dependent for livelihood, the villagers also engage in cultivating paddy, maize and pulses on forest land. A panchayat office 12 kilometres away is all that the villagers have as a mark of government insignia.
As per villagers, without a single water source, they are forced to drink contaminated water from an abandoned well. Despite complaints, the district administration has done nothing to provide water. “We took that responsibility on our shoulders as no help came from the administration and have started digging a well on a patch of land at the end of the village,” said Sripati Gouda, Balaram Gouda, Dumbaru Gouda, Samna Santa and Dhirabi Santa unanimously.
In the absence of roads, villagers trek all the way to the panchayat office at Patkholia to get their quota of PDS rice. Worse, expectant women are carried on cots till Mundiguda and from there, the forest road leads them to the nearest health care centre. During rains, villagers carve a pathway to walk, that too at their own effort and expenditure.
More than 30 children of the village depend on the schools and anganwadi centres of Badlipani village, 5 kms away. But due to the risk of hilly roads, parents abstain from sending their children to those schools.
As the sun sets, every door in the village shuts for the fear of wildlife.Villagers allege, none of the families has been included in any housing scheme of the government. Even toilets are not constructed in a single house under Swachh Bharat Mission.
“We have repeatedly requested the local MLA Nityanand Gond and BDO to visit the village and provide us basic facilities. But all of it has remained unheard,” said Krishibas Gouda, a villager. Tankadhar Gouda, another villager said, “We have demanded the district administration to provide basic amenities as early as possible otherwise we will protest.”
Contacted, Chandahandi BDO Dharmaraj Majhi said, two to three tubewells will be dug in the village within a week. “The process to provide other services and facilities to the village will start in a couple of days,” he added.