Villagers Lay 1.5-KM-Long Road On Their Own In Odisha’s Rayagada

Rayagada: When the administration shied away from its responsibility and repeated pleas fell on deaf ears of the government, residents of Dibolpadu village in Odisha’s Rayagada district resolved to construct a road on their own.

The villagers said they had to encounter unimaginable hardship in the absence of a proper road connecting their village with the rest of the areas in the district.

Particularly the students of the village were dismayed when they experienced difficulty in travelling to their schools and colleges. Several mishaps also took place because of the hazardous condition of the route through which they had to travel.

Lamenting that they ran from pillar to post seeking steps by the authorities concerned to build a good road, the villagers said none of the officials concerned heard their prayer for laying of a road. Dibolpadu under Pujariguda panchayat of Kalyansingpur block in the district is a home to 70 families.

Patients had to suffer as no ambulance was able to reach the village due to the damaged road, they said.

Despite several requests to the sarpanch, BDO and even the collector in the grievance cell, no step was taken.

As their plight got multiplied, the villagers called a meeting and decided to lay the stretch of a 1.5 km-long road on their own. They brought a tractor on rent and collected required materials and equipment for the laying of the road.