Kendrapara: The deadline set by the district administration to rehabilitate 571 families of sea erosion-prone Satabhaya village at Bagapatia Rehabilitation Colony by June 31 is unlikely to be met as several infrastructure development works are yet to be carried out, a report said.
Besides, several families are yet to complete construction of housing units at the colony though funds were provided by the authorities for the purpose. The district administration has provided 10 decimal of land to each family for construction of house. Each family is entitled to receive Rs 1.5 lakh including Rs 70,000 under Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana and Rs 15,660 under MGNREGS for construction of a housing unit. Apart from this, the administration provides Rs 12,000 each to the 571 households for construction of latrines.
According to Maheswar Sethy, a resident of Satabhaya, as most of the families are poverty stricken, they are finding it difficult to construct houses with the meagre amount provided to them by the administration. The major problem is as the rehabilitation site is a low lying area most of the beneficiaries have already spent more than Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 each for filling the earth. But, the administration has been providing only Rs 10,000 for this purpose.
“We don’t think most of the families are going to complete their houses at Bagapatia Rehabilitation Colony before June 31. We have urged the state government to provide more funds for filling the earth at the house construction site,” said Akhaya Kumar Sahani, another resident.
According to Rajnagar tehsildar Khirod Kumar Behera, the district administration has been providing Rs 10,000 to each household for filling earth at their house construction site. The rural development department has been entrusted for filling the earth in low lying areas and peripheral development of the project, he said, adding the administration has given a proposal for allocation of Rs 6.37 crore, including Rs 3.90 crore for filling earth and Rs 1.54 crore for repairing the roads at the site, to the government.
So far, 551 families have erected pillar structures while 115 families have completed houses upto lintel level. Only one family has completed the house construction at Bagapati Rehabilitation Colony, said collector Debaraj Senapati.
The district administration has recently requested the OSDMA to provide an additional Rs 3.67 crores for early completion of all 571 houses of beneficiaries, he said.
Four water tankers have been engaged at the site to supply sweet water to beneficiaries for construction of houses while RWSS department has installed 20 tube-wells and will install another 21 tube-wells.
RWSS has been entrusted to construct an overhead tank and supply piped water to the colony. For this purpose, Rs1.72 crore has been estimated and a proposal sent to higher authorities for approval.
The collector had shown his displeasure over the poor performance of CESU regarding supply of electricity to the colony at the rehabilitation site during a review meeting in April, the tehsildar said.
Buildings for three Anganwadi centres, gram panchayat office and a godown are going to be constructed at Bagapatia while the work of a Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Seva Kendra building is yet to be completed, official sources said. PNN