Puri: About 200 transit shelter homes would be constructed for the homeless to house them till they get pucca homes under government scheme.
Puri district rural development agency (DRDA) project director Nrusinh Chandra Swain dedicated a transit shelter home project in Biripadia village under the Pratapramchandrapur gram panchayat.
Swain said families, who were living by the roadside, would be allowed to stay in the home till they get government pucca houses.
Two hundred such transit shelter homes would be made available to the needy, and in Biripadia village 30 houses would be provided before the monsoon, he added.
Spandan, a leading NGO of the state would construct 200 transit homes for the homeless. Each shelter home will be constructed on 15×15 feet area with metal roofs, toilet, kitchen space and provision for water storage.
SEEDS, another NGO, would plant saplings in the deforested areas.
However, the locals opposed construction of the shelter homes as these houses would obstruct their passage to agriculture land.
Villagers Bidyadhar Biswal and Ramesh Chandra Naik alleged that many of the beneficiaries under the scheme have houses and landed property in nearby villages but they were encroaching public land, including forest and village cremation ground.
They said before selecting beneficiaries, their present status should be ascertained before the transit house is allotted to them.
Most of the villagers present on the occasion demanded a multipurpose cyclone shelter be constructed in their village.