After Covid, guest workers hit hard by Odisha floods

Many dream projects washed away in deluge

The Covid- 19 crisis had hit them hard. But their spirit always remained high and they had blatantly refused to surrender to economic challenges posed by the pandemic. However, the high floods in the major river systems of Odisha have convincingly vanquished them. So much so that many of them are staring at dark days ahead if the state government does not take care of them.

First- time rural entrepreneurs and guest workers who had undertaken agriculture activities in the coastal areas of Odisha have lost all their investments as the high floods in the major river system washed away their dream projects.

“I had invested nearly ` 5 lakh on raising a poultry farm. The birds had grown fully and I was about to sell them in the next few days. I was expecting a return of nearly ` 7 lakh. Now, hope is completely shattered as the flood water in the Baitarani river system has washed away my poultry

unit. While many birds were washed away, the others met their watery grave,” said Rajanikant Satpathy, a poultry farm owner of Panasa village in Odisha’s Jajpur district.

Dozens of poultry farmers in the adjoining areas have lost their investments.

Akshya Rout, a guest worker of Dharmasala in Jajpur district had returned from Surat city in Gujarat in April this

year after the nationwide lockdown was announced. He had undertaken brinjal and other vegetable cultivation in his two hectares of land after borrowing some money from the bank. “I had grown various kinds of vegetables in two acres of land on the bank of Brahamni river. The swirling water of Brahmani has devoured them all. Even there is no trace of the roots of the vegetable plants,” said Rout.