Odisha tribals sing and dance before Collector's office to protest apathy

 Bhubaneswar: The Juang tribals in Odisha’s Keonjhar district on Tuesday staged a novel protest in front of the office of the Collector to express their resentment over the alleged apathy of the state administration towards resolving their issues.

Reports said, over one hundred male and female members of the Juang community, hailing from Telkoir block in the district, congregated in front of the Collectorate in the morning and performed dances to the popular musical numbers of their community to the tribal music to draw the attention of the administration.

Around 500 people of the Juang tribal community live in Godinarda village under Telkoi block. However, they have been suffering a lot in the absence of a pucca road. They alleged that ambulances are unable to reach the village during medical emergencies. Patients and pregnant women are often carried either on slings or on shoulders to hospitals. Electricity is still a dream for the tribal village, they complained.

The agitating tribals said though they apprised the local administration of the urgency for a pucca road and electricity in the past, no step had been taken till date.

“As our repeated pleas fell on deaf ears, we had no other option left than to draw the attention of the district administration resorted to agitation to draw the attention of the district administration toward their routine woes,” Ramakant Juang, a local resident, said.

He added, “The road to the village is nothing but a cart track. People have to negotiate with such a road on a daily basis while going to the gram panchayat office 12 km away.  From there, they have to carry loads of PDS (public distribution system) rice on their shoulders to the village. Ambulances can't run on the road.”

Collector Ashish Thakare listened to the grievances of the agitating Juangs and assured them of taking necessary measures to provide road and electricity connectivity.

“Earlier, we had sanctioned 47 approach roads in the hard-to-reach areas. We will examine their complaints and take appropriate action,” the Collector said.