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ailing roads causing ailments
The KBK districts of Orissa are the most interior regions of the state. It has very poor communication facilities. Underdeveloped railway connectivity and poor road service mark the sorry state of the districts. The state capital Bhubaneswar is at an enormous distance of 700 hundred Kilometres from the southernmost district head quarter of KBK districts. A single journey over the rough roads to the capital can make any healthy person ill. Recently one of our staff had been to Berhampur on the grounds of Medical treatment. After being cured of his ailments when he returned from Berhampur his health condition once again deteriorated severely because of the awful long journey. As a result, he was made to rush to the hospital again.
Since the month of September 2010 my wife, who is an expectant mother, is in her paternal home because I cannot provide her adequate medical facility at this place. Yesterday I was chitchatting at a local beetle shop. The shopkeeper proudly showed me a photograph, which was published in a daily local paper. The shopkeeper had clicked that photograph that showed an ailing patient being carried by four men on a cot to the near-by hospital. The published photo was loudly proclaiming that: We do not have ambulance; if we have ambulance, we do not have roads; if we have roads, we do not have doctors; we have many ‘Nots’ because we are the Havenots.
The lack of connectivity and good road system has an indirect benefit. It is that once we come to this interior pockets we stay in the place for months together. My colleagues who are working with me in the same college take extra classes on most Sundays because Sundays have no meaning to them. On Sundays, they cannot go to their hometown. The distance and the tiresome journey desist everyone ( my colleagues) to remain in the headquarters. So it becomes more sensible for us to engage ourselves in doing our duty even on Sundays as the most pleasant form of diversion. However, the irony is that in spite of our committed service the Government is never pleased to allow us the KBK allowance. Nevertheless, this allowance is provided to other service holders of the region. In Orissa, the teachers are the most neglected community.
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