For those beyond the fence or in no man’s land, it is all agonizing. It is a sort of life worst than that during the British colonial rule. The men, women, and youths in general of Mahadevpur part III whom this scribe talked to spoke in an identical tone of their worries and agonies.

In this no man’s land, there are 55 families belonging to SC and OBC communities with a population of 270. “We have to face lot of difficulties in our movement to meet our daily needs as there is no proper road,” said Sattrajit Chanda (65). The only road, which was being built under NREGS after making slight progress suddenly came to a halt for which no explanation was available from the contractor concerned. The villagers pushed to the wall have to walk through the border road and they apprehend the objection of the BSF which might arise at any moment.

Bhupendra Namasudra (60), a petty businessman, narrating their woes said, “The people are deprived of all sorts of benefits of the Central or State sponsored schemes and projects.” They have heard of Kalpataru, old age pension, Indira Awas Yojana, Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Bidyutikaran, fair price shops but none of these exist here.

In order to collect their essential commodities under Public Distribution System, they have to walk all the way to Gumrah Cooperative, 8 kms away, which is quite difficult. It is better, as he said, to purchase them in the open or black market.

Birendra Roy (60) painfully said, “Nobody in this village has got a job card. There is no hope that they will get it.” No leader or official, not to speak of the president or the secretary of the gaon panchayat ever visits and takes note of their concerns, he pointed out. It is only during the time of elections that the leaders take the trouble to come to feed them with a volley of promises. Even after 67 years of independence, the people are deprived of safe drinking water. The PHE plant is de-functional. “We have to depend upon river Surma for our water needs,” he added.

Abhishek Das (55), a vendor by profession, spoke about the problems faced by the students. According to him, except a LP school, no facility for education is available. Students have to go to ME, high school and higher secondary education at Baleswar which is 6 kms away. The catalogue of their agonies is endless. No primary health centre exists. For general or critical illness, people have to travel more than 5 kms to reach Jalalpur PHC. But even after getting there, no doctor, nurse or medicine is available. The ambulance of the PHC during emergency is also never available for them. Medical treatment is beyond their reach. In fact, they are yet to see 108 Mritunjoy or Sanjibanee.

Apart from all these pains and tribulations, the entire village of Mahadevpur part III is under the threat of erosion by the Surma river during the monsoon season. Hundreds of bighas of their agricultural land have been washed away, adding to their lives lived in agony. In the event of high floods, they have to take shelter on embankments or in Boleshwar Higher Secondary School, 8 kms away.

The inhabitants survive with their daily income as wage earners or by catching fish from the river and other water bodies. This painful existence of living from hand to mouth has made them pose the question as to whether they are the citizens of an independent India that swears by democracy and socialism. “It is better they live in Bangladesh,” said an octogenarian.

Nilotpal Bhattacharjee