Malkangiri: We have all grown up with sepia images of Gora Sahebs on horseback shouting instructions at poor farmers and village folk in pre-Independence India. But what is this Brown Saheb doing in the villages on horseback in the 21st century?
He’s no feudal lord. This is 41-year-old Prashant Kumar Behera, a junior engineer in the Rural Works Division of Malkangiri district, who has hit upon the ingenious idea of riding horseback to monitor the development of 100 remote villages in the district that are, to this date, cut off by the Balimela reservoir. So he literally trots to work.
The region has no roads. Surveying is also not possible on a two or four wheeler due to the rugged terrain. It is hilly and not steep. Left with no choice, Behera started using a horse and mind you, this is not an official horse. Behera borrows one from the villagers and sets out to work. When he can’t finish in a day and gets late, Behera makes himself comfortable in one of the village houses. The villagers are only too glad to host him for the night.
Nearly 100 villages isolated by the Balimela reservoir are not connected by roads. When the Gurupriya bridge was opened on July 26, 2018, part of this region with 151 villages got linked to the rest of Odisha and became ‘Swabhiman Anchal’ (region of pride).
Now, plans are on to build roads under the Setu project of the Odisha government and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana of the Centre, to connect the 100-odd villages. Maoists in the area opposed this idea and stalled construction of the Gurupriya bridge for decades.
Such dedicated officials are difficult to come by. Behera makes sure he makes value additions and links education, water and roads etc. to the overall development of the area. Till date, he has found more supporters than opposers and faced no visible Maoist threat too. What is more, he and his friends have also woven a social cause around development. They collect household goods and clothes from the city and distribute them among needy villagers.
