Feb 16, 2007: Money Control

Orissa's villages await basic amenities, employment
2007-02-15 19:08:08 Source : Moneycontrol.com

It is election time in Orissa and CNBC-TV18 takes stock of the region.

Welcome to Nabrangpur in Southern Orissa, the dense forests of which are home to many animals and varied Oriya tribes. It is one of the 1000 tribal villages in the district. The village is a 1000 years old and is still waiting for power - this, despite being right on the Highway and barely 12 kilometres away from the district headquarters.

There are about a 1000 small tribal villages in this district comprising about 10 lakh of rural people.

A few kilometres ahead comes the next district - Kalahandi. Here too the situation is the same. Hundreds of villages here are still waiting for basic amenities like water, power, and education.

Many of these villages are covered under the state's Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme - which provides employment to at least one member of each family for a 100 days in a year. And those employed are to be paid about Rs 75. But villagers who have been employed under this scheme say they have never been employed for a hundred days in a year. They claim that they are paid Rs 30-40 a day, for employment under the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

The state is planning electrification for many of these villages over the next two years. But until that plan sees the light of day- villages like this one will continue to wait for someone to light up their homes and their lives.

Call it 'Bharat' or the 'other India', the neglect of villages such as these are pointed out time and again, but it remains to be seen whether the lawmakers of this country will do anything other than use it as an election issue.