Months after kids' deaths, remote tribal village in Odisha gets a road

Bhubaneswar: Infamously known as Odisha’s Ethiopia for malnutrition and hunger deaths, Nagada village in Jajpur district has finally got a road connecting the hilltop Juanga tribal-dominated habitation with the outer world.

After the village hogged the limelight following the death of 19 children due to malnutrition within a span of three months, between May and July 2016, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik – under scathing attack from the Opposition parties and criticism from various corners – had laid the foundation stone for a road in November 2016.

The construction of the road was taken up on a war-footing under the leadership of present collector. “The new road, at least for the time being, has facilitated journey to the village by pick-up vans and hilly-terrain vehicles. Very soon, passenger vehicles will run on the road, enabling the tribals to get their day-to-day works,” Jajpur collector Ranjan Kumar Das said on Thursday.

In fact on Wednesday, revenue divisional commissioner A.B. Otta, Mr Das and other senior officials, who had to trek the hill for six hours with the help of walking sticks last November, reached the village in a vehicle and reviewed the progress of nutrition programme and other government projects like solar lighting, digging of ponds, construction of community school and community house buildings.

The Juanga tribals praised the government officials and performed dance and music.

In August 2017, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had formed a Special Task Force to look into the issue of malnutrition deaths at Nagada.

Before the new road was constructed, the villagers had to move more than 15 km through a dense forest to reach the motorable Daitary-Paradip road to get their basic necessities.