MALKANGIRI: For nearly eight years, no officer visited cut-off villages in Chitrakonda-Balimela reservoir area under Chitrakonda block in Odisha’s Maoist-infested Malkangiri district, leaving people in seven gram panchayats in the area to their fates.
The fear of being abducted and getting killed by the rebels always haunted the officers. To pleasant surprise of the residents of Dhuliput, one of the seven gram panchayats in the inaccessible cut-off area, Chitrakonda Block Development Officer Larimen Kharsal on Friday walked miles to reach out to them and get to know about issues affecting them, reports said on Saturday.
Seven out of the nine Panchayats under Chitrakonda block are still cut off from the outer world and no state official ever visited the region after former Malkana-giri district collector R. Vineel Krishna was kidnapped by Maoists on February 16, 2011. Krishna, then 30 years old, was kidnapped while to see a culvert on a road going after attending a public relations camp. He was released on February 24.
