Kendrapara: As many as 200 families left back in sea-ravaged Satabhaya panchayat under Rajnagar block in this district have been left in the lurch after the district administration abruptly stopped basic services like education, healthcare and power supply to their village, a report said Monday.
The administration is yet to rehabilitate these families in Bagapatia rehabilitation colony.
The administration’s decision has hit the residents harder than the sea erosion which has washed away a major portion of the panchayat.
The closure of the school has affected over 60 students who now remain at home in the absence of education, a villager Surendranath Patra said.
In the absence of power connections, the locals have become vulnerable to attacks by wild animals while many children have been deprived of getting vaccinations for Japanese encephalitis.
Due to constant sea erosion, the state government decided to shift 571 families of Satabhaya to Bagapatia under Gupti panchayat of Rajnagar block. A land of 10 decimal was identified to rehabilitate each family in Bagapatia.
The residents would be provided with funds under housing schemes for construction of houses and Rs 15,000 under MGNREGS for development of the land allotted to them.
This apart, the administration is providing power connections, drinking water facilities, healthcare services and establishing schools for the residents rehabilitated at Bagapatia.
Over 300 families have been relocated at Bagapatia while about 200 families are waiting for their turn to be shifted.
Bilasini Behera (72), a woman of Barahipur in Satabhaya panchayat, flayed the administration’s decision stating that the land registered in the name of her husband Bidyadhar Behera in Bagapatia is yet to be changed to her son’s name.
Her husband died three years back but her son who is suffering from psychological problems was unable to change the ownership of the land in his name as he finds it difficult to visit the government office. While she is yet to receive old age pension, the administration has not provided her widow pension even after the death of her husband.
Many of villagers alleged the lands identified in their names are filled with knee-deep water and lakhs of rupees are needed to be spent for leveling of the land.
Tehsildar-cum-nodal officer Khirod Behera said Bagapatia is being developed to rehabilitate all the Satabhaya residents and all the families would be shifted by March this year. PNN
