5T Impact: Ray of Development Reaches Two Remote Villages in Ganjam

Berhampur: Tosingi, a remote village situated in Pandiripada gram panchayat under Polasara block had not seen the ray of development as virtually there was no road connectivity due to difficult terrain. Reaching the village was used to be a herculean task. The difficult life of the people staying in this village, which is around 40 kilometers from block headquarters, came to limelight six months ago when Ganjam District Project Director (DRDA) Siddharth Shankar Swain braved to walk more than 10 kilo meters to reach the village to take stock of the development works being carried out there.

Till last week of January year, not even a single four-wheeler vehicle could ever reach the village. The remoteness of the village was such that no government scheme or programme could be implemented properly. Even as the work order for the distribution of Indira Awas Yojana was handed over to beneficiaries six months ago, the work could not be carried out due to communication problem. The beneficiaries had shown reluctance to construct houses under the scheme and the reason was lack of proper road connectivity.

A similar gloomy picture prevailed in the Tosingi’s neighboring village Chanchara in Gochabadi gram panchayat in the same block where people were deprived of basic facilities.

With the active and timely intervention of the District administration led by Ganjam Collector and PD, DRDA, who himself trekked almost 10 km to reach the villages, the pace of development is picking up and the people are poised to lead a dignified life. The driving force behind such a positive change is the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s 5T model of governance that has motivated the government machineries to address the problems of the people at grassroots level in a time-bound manner.

For the development of Tosingi and Chanchara villages, the administration has adopted the 5-T action plan, for major transformation by sanctioning fund for the construction of a commutable road. With this the village saw arrival of a four-wheeler vehicle for the first time on January 28.

Spelling detail about his plans, Sidharth Shankar Swain said, “When we personally visited the village, we realised the problems of the people were primarily linked to motorable road”, he said.

“As directed by Chief Minister to be responsive to needs of people especially the most deprived, we immediately planned for the road and the Block team under the supervision of a BDO Shambhunath Nandi made it possible in such a short time enabling us to serve the people of these hamlets better with all government schemes, the soft-spoken officer further added.

Meanwhile, a fair-weather road at the cost of Rs 10 lakh is under construction. It will be completed in all aspects by February 15.

With the construction of the fair-weather road, there would be visible transformation of villages and people will reap the benefits of the development, he added.

The administration is also planning to dig tube wells in the villages to provide water to the households.

Besides, all CFC SFC works including roads MNREGS works including farm pond, cattle shed and land development will commence very soon.

One check dam, one farm pond and a cattle hostel will be constructed in the villages, as per the plans.

Besides, 10 proposals of land development have been approved by the district administration.

All these developments will certainly boost the economic activities in the villages.