Jamshedpur: Thirty Bagjata Sabar families continue to thirst for water

Mail News Service

Jadugoda, July 3: Barely 15 kilometers from the Gurabandha Block Office is Bagjata village under Bhalki Panchayat that is home to 30 Sabar families who have given up hopes of basic facilities, one of them being potable water. Considered endangered, the government has envisaged several schemes for the uplift of rural denizens including Sabars. Crores of rupees have been provisioned but, thanks to the step-brotherly attitude of the Babudom, not a farthing has fallen in the miserable, almost begging bowls of the 30 Sabar families barely managing to keep body and soul intact in the miserable village of Bagjata.

These Sabar families have to trek long distances over foot-marked tracks with inherent dangers to collect water every day, every season. Presently, these families of endangered tribal community have found a seemingly easier option but with unlimited health hazards. They are now subsisting on water from a waterfall like source meant for irrigation. Bagjata villagers have contributed out of their already meager financial resources to make a tunnel-like structure to protect the water from pollution and danger to human consumption but that is miles away from the basic issue of providing potable water.

Once upon a time, so to say, a solar-powered water tower had come up in Bagjata much to the gratified sighs of the 30 Sabar family members. But the adage, ‘good times are short-lived,’ fits squarely on the fate of these Sabars. The last trickle from the tower went kaput three months ago when the contractor took away the solar pump and nothing had been heard since then. They are back to their ways of trekking over foot-marked tracts to fetch water from distant sources and sometimes from the miniature waterfall meant for irrigation purposes.

Are the government babus aware of the fate of the Bagjata Sabars? Where are the funds when it comes to development of rural areas? When will they be awakened to the dark reality of the survival ways of the 30 Sabar families? Many such questions haunt Gopal Sabar, Kajal Sabar, Somwari Sabar, Kesri Sabar, Malti Sabar, Pano Sabar, Sita Sabar and the rest of the beleaguered 30 Sabar families. Will crossing fingers help in awakening the slumbering government bosses to the stark reality of these Bagjata Sabar denizens? The babus have the answer to these long unanswered questions.