BARIPADA: From a rugby paddock, 26-year-old Dibya Ranjan Das, has now landed in the election battlefield to contest as a sarpanch candidate for Zone no-19 of Champajhar village under Thakurmunda block.Backed by BJD, Dibya’s zeal to see development in his village and nearby areas propelled him to leave a well-paying job and get into grassroots politics.
The fact that his village still lacks basic amenities like motorable roads, drinking water, electricity, quality health service and education unsettled him. “As most of the villagers are economically-backward and uneducated, they fail to voice their grievances to the higher authorities, resulting in government schemes not reaching them and I wish to be that voice,” said Dibya, adding that his emphasis will be on catering to the elderly first who don’t even receive old-age pension.
After completing his matriculation in 2011 from Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Bhubaneswar, BCom from Kalinga Institute of Industrial Training (KIIT) University in 2016 and BPEd from Sambalpur University in 2018, Dibya joined KIIT as a physical education teacher. Throughout his career, Dibya represented the state and the country as a rugby player in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018 at various championships. He also was the referee in the Asian U-17 Rugby Championship held in 2018 in Bhubaneswar.
With the help of friends, Dibya has set up the Future Star Sports Academy (FSSA) to provide physical training and education to the needy children for free.