DJ Venkatesh
Diglipur, Oct 8: The Assistant Commissioner of Diglipur, Mr AK Trivedi along with Revenue Officials and Block Development Officer, Smt Lalita Tigga embarked on an extensive visit to remote Shantinagar village to take stock of issues on Wednesday. The team travelled for over an hour in country-made dinghy, walked through the muddy creeks to reach Shanti Nagar.
After being received warmly by the villagers, the Assistant Commissioner inspected the Anganwadi Centre and Govt. Middle School in the village. He also inspected the Mid Day Meal served to students during lunch hours and expressed satisfaction over the quality of the meals.
Mr Trivedi, later, had an interactive session with the villagers during which several issues were raised by the locals. The villagers demanded a solution to the problems being faced during the 700 mtr walk through the muddy creeks to approach the Dinghy Ghat. According to reports, the creek falls under forest land and villagers have laid timber and damaged logs to facilitate movement of villagers to the approach the boats. Moreover, villagers of Shanti Nagar have often met with accidents after falling into the creeks while negotiating the rough stretch.
Speaking to Andaman Sheekha, the newly elected Pradhan, Smt Gulabi Das said that bulk of the vegetables to Diglipur are supplied from Shantinagar and farmers used the creek way to transport vegetables via dinghy. A road is being constructed through Gandhi Nagar; but it may take years to complete, she said requesting the Administration to find an early solution to the problem and prevent villagers from suffering inhuman conditions in the area.
Gossshhh….In this 20th century , poor villagers are still allowed to live and lead their daily life in such inhuman and terrain conditions in this beautiful emerald isles . Certainly the Administration needs to expedite the basic development activity in this village to overcome the apathy faced by the poor residents .When our constitution has provided the right to life with basic amenities , how come this village was left out from the mainstream . As a fellow citizen , I am disturbed to see that some of my brethren is still allowed to live in 19th century with no proper basic amenities to lead a simple daily life . The district officials visit to this village would be certainly an eye opener rather than on papers in the files but how far this visit would be successful is yet to be seen and ascertained further . I wonder will the situation improve at ground zero after this visit or yet again it would remain a symbolic activity .
I would expect the media to follow up with the local citizen charter of this village and highlight all such issues where there is a shortfall of basic amenities .
Form an Avid Reader of Andaman Sheekha ,
Roby George
Dubai – UAE.