Ganjam: At least 50 houses in Podampeta village in Palibanda panchayat in this block would soon get wiped off the map due to sea erosion, thanks to administrative negligence, a report said.
The state government is providing housing units under various schemes to the shelter-less families. Similarly, disaster resilient houses are being given away under the Odisha Disaster Recovery Project (ODRP) to the families living within 5 km from the High Tide Line (HTL) in Ganjam district. However, many fishermen families living close to the coast were left out of the scheme, it was alleged.
Podampeta is a case in point.
The administration, due to rough weather condition and coast erosion, had relocated the residents of the village to another area under the ODRP scheme and named it New Podampeta. There were 102 fishermen families in the village but 50 of them alleged that they were not included in the scheme. At present, their houses are about to be swept away by the marauding sea. However, the administration doesn’t bother to rescue them, alleged the affected families.
The families that were deprived of housing units belong to poor economic background. They mostly eke out their living from fishing, said members of the affected families including CH Gureya, D Kameya, CH Musleya, B Babaji and CH Tukuna.
“While many affluent families manage to get houses under various government schemes, poor like us are left out due to government apathy,” one of them said.
When contacted, block development officer, Jyoti Shankar Ray, said he has not received any complaint in this regard. He would take a decision following a probe if the allegations are found true, Ray added.
PNN
