How Satya Vihar people suffer in day-to-day life

(As published in The Pioneer on 26 Aug 2014- http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/how-satya-vihar-people-suffer-in-day-to-day-life.html)

Satya Vihar is one of the suburban localities of Bhubaneswar where there is no drinking water supply or drainage facility available. Thousands of residents suffer many problems in their day-to-day life, waterlogging being the most serious one.

Residents here have no shame in dumping waste of their own houses in lands where no building has been constructed. Some even unabashedly let the sewage water of their houses into such lands adjacent to their houses giving out to unbearable stench.

Adding to this is the problem of contractors who illegally procure several truckloads/trips of sand from the banks of river Kuakhai to sell to people who are constructing new houses. These wealthy contractors never hesitate to cause harm and inconvenience to nearby residents by their profit-making activities.

Here is an example of how a contractor is procuring and storing sand for sale, thereby causing huge potholes by 10-20 trucks and tractors resulting in severe waterlogging, due to which many women, children, and senior citizens walk or commute with great difficulty. The conditions worsen during the heavy monsoons. This is what the trucks and tractors have done to the earthen road in front the grand newly-opened St Xavier’s International School of Satya Vihar. Commoners, including senior citizens, travel in precarious condition, sometimes stepping on some bricks.

This is how mothers carry their children back from school. An autorickshaw got stuck in sand as well and had to be rescued out of thigh-deep water.

A gas-cylinder delivery vehicle had come last week. It got stuck in the sand and 30-50 cylinders had to be unloaded; the vehicle had to be pushed out and the cylinders had to be loaded back then. One day, scared of getting stuck again, the gas-cylinder supplier refused to get into it, and stopped on the nearby road instead. The gas-cylinder supplier then called up its customers and at least 30 of them took their cylinders in a miserably way.

I just took these photographs, among many others, through my phone, from the rooftop of my house. I had a verbal duel with the contractor, who is responsible for such a mishap. I hardly had anyone to support me that time. All suffered, but shockingly no one raised a voice before that wealthy contractor and his men. He abused and flatly refused to fill up such huge pools of muddy water he has created. Forget insects; small and big snakes are also found in the muddy water at times. And things worsen much more than this after a heavy rain shower.

These are just a few instances of hardships faced by commoners. It is to be noted here that the Housing and Urban Development Minister along with some MLAs and Ward Members had just paid a visit and hosted an Iftaar party here at Satya Vihar a few weeks back, and such is the development you see in these pictures! I am sure water is clogged in hundreds of such areas in capital city Bhubaneswar. So what is left to say about rural Odisha!

(The writer is a resident of Satya Vihar)