Odisha: Balasore Residents Cast Fishing Nets on Flooded Roads to Protest Civic Apathy

 Bhubaneswar: In a striking display of anger and satire, residents of Balasore town in Odisha turned waterlogged streets into protest sites on Tuesday by casting fishing nets on submerged roads. The unusual demonstration came after torrential rainfall left large parts of the town inundated, paralysing normal life and exposing long-standing drainage woes.

With traffic movement already crippled, locals said the act of ‘catching fish’ on the flooded roads was meant to mock the authorities’ failure to provide basic civic infrastructure. Videos of residents spreading fishing nets in knee-deep water have since gone viral, sparking widespread debate on urban neglect in smaller towns.

“We don’t have a functional drainage system here, and the administration has turned a blind eye to our suffering. Officials come, inspect, and take measurements, but no concrete work is ever done,” a local resident said.

Another protester alleged that encroachments on government land had worsened the problem. “Encroachments block natural water channels, and yet the government takes no action. Year after year, we are left to suffer.”

The situation is particularly dire, residents pointed out, because the flooded stretch connects a key road leading to the district medical facility. “We have pleaded with the authorities several times to repair the road and build proper drainage. But nothing has changed. This fishing-net protest is our way of showing how absurd our plight has become,” said one of the demonstrators.

Urban flooding has emerged as a recurring challenge in many towns across Odisha, where unplanned growth, poor drainage systems, and encroachment on water bodies often leave residents grappling with knee-deep water after every heavy downpour. Balasore’s protest is the latest reminder of how civic neglect has pushed citizens to employ satire as a last resort to demand attention.