‘Everyone loves Hikaka… he is a good boy. Why was he abducted?’

Sarpanch Nila Parashke is angry,as is former school classmate Dharmendra Kuldeep. “He is the man who would be with you when there was a funeral or a childbirth at your home. He helped me so much,” says Kuldeep.

“With him there is no concept of rest,” says private secretary Himanshu Sekhar Sahoo,talking about how Hikaka would constantly be in touch over his laptop with government functionaries and is simultaneously pursuing a masters in law. “He even gave up the government quarters allotted to him in Koraput town for security reasons. Patients and poor students from his own block now stay there,” says Sahoo. The latter incidentally chucked a job with Reliance Infocomm in Bhubaneswar to be with Hikaka.

It was Hikaka’s work as a project officer with the Dumuripadara watershed programme of the Orissa Tribal Empowerment and Livelihood Programme that brought him to notice. He helped built several check dams as well as raised self-help groups in Laxmipur,a block that suffered acute water scarcity in summer days.

As people talked about Hikaka’s work,he was picked by the BJD’s top brass. In the 2009 elections that followed,the man without any political godfather — own father Nathu works as a railway gangman in Rayagada — defeated former chief minister Giridhari Gomang’s wife Hema.

In the three years since Hikaka became an MLA,the watershed programme has grown,with village after village seeking check dams,while all the villages in Laxmipur block can boast of a tubewell each. Hikaka has also eased availability of caste certificates needed for school admissions.

The long concrete road snaking around Dumuripadar is Hikaka’s contribution too. Ironically,it was from here that he was abducted yesterday.

A rally was held in Laxmipur today seeking Hikaka’s release. “We are ready to pay any price,” said a villager.