Highway Horror at Bhubaneshwar
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The Highway at Bhubaneshwar is a case of ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’ or, to put it more aptly, out of the swirling flood waters and at the mercy of skidding vehicles. Whichever way one puts it, life continues to be fraught with lurking danger and untold misery for the hundreds of people who have taken shelter on the Bhubaneshwar-Puri national highway, making themselves vulnerable to imminent accidents. Gangadhar Swain, a 57-year-old resident of Jasuapur village reported saying, “We had hoped life would be better on an elevated place like the highway. But it’s as bad as living in the deluge of floodwater. Here, we are dying every moment out of the fear of being crushed under the wheels of speeding vehicles.”
As compared to the highway, river embankments, where hundreds of people and cattle have taken refuge, are safer as there is little movement of vehicles on the ramparts. Nearly 500 people have set up temporary sheds on both sides of the highway near Patanaikia, Satasankha, Teispur and Mangalpur squares after the floodwaters of Daya, Kusabhadra and Dhanua rivers ravaged their villages. The flood has endangered the safety and be spoils the modesty of women, who are forced to spend nights under the open sky, either on river embankments or on highways. “It is uncomfortable for women to relieve themselves in the open,” reported one of the villages nearby. Puri district collector Fakir Charan Satapathy also reported saying, Even as the cup of woes of the flood-hit victim’s spills over, the Puri district administration said the situation is under control. “The situation is improving in certain places. The flood waters are receding.”
