ROURKELA: Even as the government is stressing development of rural areas to wean off villagers from the Maoist influence, three Maoist-infested villages in the bordering Bisra block cut a sorry figure.Villages Akshaysila, Tulsikani and Jharbera, located at the extreme end of Sundargarh district and close to Maoist hotbed of Saranda, have been victims of administrative neglect. In February 2006, three lift irrigation (LI) points were installed in these villages with arrangement of drawing water from Akshaysila nullah for irrigation.Within a month, these LI points have gone defunct and till date, no effort has been made to repair them. In the name of Biju Gram Jyoti Yojana, which aimed at electrifying these villages, only a non-functional transformer was installed in Akshaysila village in June this year. The people alleged that the contractor who installed the transformer put in water inside the machine instead of oil. They further alleged that the contractor asked all villagers to chip in Rs 3,000 to buy the transformer oil and when they failed to do so, the electrification drive came to a standstill. Wesco SDO Loknath Das promised that electricity would be provided to the three villages at the earliest, but power to the defunct LI points can only be supplied after the Orissa Lift Irrigation Corporation installs a new transformer.
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