CUTTACK: Over 200 villages in Cuttack are exposed to flood ravages and destruction with river embankments being identified to be weak and vulnerable to breaches at as many as 406 points in the district. Over 15,000 people are staring at an impending danger as several existing breaches have been left with minor patchworks at Kahkhadi, Mancheswar and Dhusuria panchayats under Athgarh block of the district. Embankments in large areas of Banki, 42 Mouza, Barada in Kishan Nagar, Nischintkoili, Chitrotpala islands, Niali and Kantapada and the stretch of Mahanadi embankment from Gandhipalli to Gatiroutpatna are in most precarious condition, the Congress alleged on Sunday as it announced an agitation on June 26 to take the failures of the Government and the administration to the people. The party stated that though the district administration had claimed to have completed repair and strengthening works of the embankments by June 10, the situation on the ground presented a completely opposite picture. In the name of repair, only mud and soil patchworks were done without any stone packing to enable the embankments sustain the fury of the flood waters, Cuttack District Congress Committee president Prakash Chandra Behera told mediapersons on Sunday. The recent caving in of the embankment at Gandhipalli was a blatant example of the inaction of the Government. The collapse was solely due to the laying of pipeline from Jobra to Paradip for the IOC oil refinery project being undertaken by Lanco Group Ltd. “An unholy nexus has been formed to not only plunder the water resources at the cost of drinking water and agriculture but also to cause damage to the people. The company has been digging up the already weak embankment and putting the pipleline without even bothering to solidify the structure. The core is being eaten and the Government has become a conniving agency”, Behera alleged. The Congress on Sunday announced staging of a Padyatra from Jobra to Gatiroutpatna along the embankment on June 26. A people’s movement is building up with the demand for withdrawing the pipe-laying work and initiation of action against the company as well as the officials of departments concerned, who have failed to discharge their duties of strengthening the embankments, Behera said.
Comments
0 comment