Kendrapara: The district administration and Forest Department are under pressure as 148 families are still residing in sea-ravaged Satabhaya even after the state government has ordered the resettlement of all the families in the village.
On the other hand, the people who have left their homes and have been rehabilitated alleged that they are yet to be provided with any job or source of daily livelihood so far.
The state government had ordered the shifting of all the people hit by sea erosion at Satabhaya village following which 571 families were targeted for rehabilitation had vacated their ancestral homes in the village. They had moved to the Bagapatia resettlement colony, while some stayed back in the village and decided to leave the village for Bagapatia only after their presiding deity at Panchuvarahi shrine was shifted to the new colony. Eventually, the presiding deity of Panchuvarahi shrine was relocated from Satabhaya to Bagapatia April 20 and many who had stayed back voluntarily shifted to Bagapatia.
However, as many as 148 families didn’t relocate to Bagapatia and are still staying in Satabhaya giving rise to a headache to the district administration here.
Speaking about the families still residing at Satabhaya, Kalandi Charan Behera, a resident of Bagapatia, said that although the state government had provided land and financial help for house construction, they still depend on Satabhaya for a livelihood. While most are engaged in farming there, others depend on fishing for their daily livelihood, he added.
The government had provided a home to one member of each relocated family after a survey, but the number of families had increased due to split in the joint families, said Kaushalya Behra, a resident of Barahipur.
When contacted, the district Collector Dasarathy Satpathy said that land was provided to the villagers according to the 2011 census. Meanwhile, seven years have passed and the number of the families has also increased. The administration made an enquiry into the applications after it received more 148 applications for home.
However, the administration had shifted all the families, he added.
The erosion of 48 km-long coastline in Kendrapara started due to global warming. According to National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) data, the erosion of the sea-cost has been occurring in 33 per cent of total costal area in India, while the erosion was spotted on 28 per cent of the total 485km-long coastline in Odisha.
According to records at Ranagar tehshil, Satabhaya village comprises Sanagahiramatha, Mohanpur, Habeli Chimtamanipur, Govindapur, Kaduanashi, Saheb nagar and Paramanadpur hamlets.
Many villagers had voluntarily moved to Kanhupur, Satabhaya, Barahipur, Ranindrapalli and Magarkandar villages due to erosion of the coastline in 1960.
PNN