Chandbali: People living in riparian villages under Chandbali block of Bhadrak district are in the lookout for their identity for 45 years now as they have not been provided with land pattas.
A cyclone in 1971 had left a trail of devastation in these villages under Chandbali and Rajkanika blocks leaving scores of families homeless.
About 60 such families were rehabilitated on a patch of government land in Baligan panchayat under this block. The village was named Gandhinagar. However, locals lament that 45 five years after they were rehabilitated here, the government has not given them pattas. Many a time, the administration has given them assurances that have turned hollow, they rued.
“We, (60 families), have no identity which we have been looking for so many years. In the absence of land pattas, we face a lot of problems. We are deprived of various government benefits while their children cannot pursue higher studies in the absence of residential certificates,” they added. They said loans are not available from banks without residential proofs.
While the government has provided pattas for homestead land to people elsewhere, they have not been as lucky, villages said. In protest against the apathy of the administration, the villagers have united under the Gandhinagar Bikash Samiti and have decided to stage an agitationFebruary 5 in front of the tehsil office.
They have conveyed their decision to the district administration. According to residents, the government had promised each villager a two-room house equipped with a toilet and drinking water facilities and two acres of farming land. The official file pertaining to these assurances lies stuck in red-tapism, they said. Top officials have been dillydallying over the issue.
“Frustrated over years, we have decided to start an agitation,” said president and secretary of Gandhinagar Bikash Samiti, Laxmidhar Sethi and Muralidhar Mahalick respectively. PNN
