Tribals Sing & Dance As Protest Against Lack Of Road In Odisha’s Keonjhar

Keonjhar: Hundreds of tribals sang in their own dialect and danced with traditional instruments to draw the attention of the authorities towards lack of pucca road and power supply to their village in Odisha’s Keonjhar district on Tuesday.

As per reports, more than 500 tribals belonging to Juang community of Godinarda village under Telkoi block in the district gathered in front of the collectorate office in the town. Instead of staging demonstration or raising slogans, they sang songs in Juang dialect and danced to the tune of ‘Changu’, a tribal musical instrument, at the spot.

The tribals alleged that due to lack of a pucca road to their village, the ambulance is not able to reach there. They have to carry the patients, pregnant women and injured persons in slings or cots to Panga village covering 5 km on foot to approach the ambulance.

Similarly, Godinarda continues to remain in darkness as power supply has not been provided to them till date. Besides, around 500 tribals of the villager have to trek through hills and forest to get their PDS items from other villages, they said.

The tribals claimed that though they had sought the facilities by informing the block officials several times, no step has been taken so far. As their repeated appeals had failed to elicit any response, they said they resorted to the innovative method of agitation to draw the attention of the authorities.

As the villagers continued the song and dance agitation for a long time, the district collector reportedly assured them of taking steps to fulfil their demands.