The Gandhi memorial structure at Barimula village in Kendrapara district. Telegraph picture

Paradip, April 3: The state human rights panel has come to the rescue of the villagers pleading for protection of the Gandhi memorial structure at Barimula village in Kendrapara.

The local residents had demanded arrest of river erosion as the scouring of the embankment posed threat to the memorabilia and human settlements. The Odisha Human Rights Commission has sought for the ameliorative measures to check the advancing river.

“The rights panel has sought for a compliance report with regard to the safety of the Gandhi memorial structure besides that of the villagers. The administration has asked the water resources division to draw up a plan to stop the advancement of the Govari river towards Barimula village near Kendrapara,” said Kendrapara collector Pradipta Kishore Pattnaik.

Barimula village had played host to the great apostle of peace. The villagers of Barimula have treasured Mahatma’s memory in form of a bust and memorial tomb. But, the Govari is inching closure to eat up the memorial. Moreover, the village faced the threat of being eaten up by the river.

The government agencies have turned indifferent towards the issue. Unless anti-erosion measures are initiated at the earliest, the furious river would take a toll on the structure and the nearby human settlement, a petition addressed to the rights panel had urged.

“The village lays claim to fame for the fact that Gandhiji had taken a padyatra here on January 30, 1934. He had addressed public meeting here. The Mahatma had spent the night at the riverside hamlet. His visited the village on January 30. And on the same day 14 years later, he fell to assassin’s bullets,” said zila parishad member Bhabani Shankar Ojha.

“There is an urgent need to arrest river erosion,” said former Kendrapara legislature Utkal Keshari Parida.

“The water resources division is aware of the river erosion problem that the village is encountering. The department has conducted technical study of the erosion trends. A project to check the erosion would get under way shortly,” said Jitendra Kumar Pattnaik, executive engineer, Kendrapara irrigation division.