Joda, Jan 23: Locals of Kanpur displaced by a major irrigation project are at their wits’ end as promises of rehabilitation made by the government have not been kept despite repeated pleas.
The irrigation project is under construction at Basudevpur under Joda block in Keonjhar district.
The displaced people said the government has given short shrift to their rehabilitation. “There has been an inordinate delay in building rehabilitation colonies while government has not yet identified homestead land for us,” said some oustees.
Official sources said as many as 19 villages under Joda block will be submerged by Kanpur project, the second largest irrigation project in the state, while over 5,000 people in 12 villages will be displaced.
In the last few years, people of only two villages have been rehabilitated elsewhere while construction work for rehabilitation colonies for seven villages — Surusuan, Chamakpur, Ravenshawpur (A) and (B), Rugudi, Dhobakuruda and Hariharpur– has started.
“The construction work of colonies has not been completed, and we’re facing a lot of problems but the administration is least bothered,” lamented Purnachandra Nayak, a representative of the displaced people.
Besides, the government has not yet identified land where rehabilitation colonies will be built for Dandua, Gobindapur and Birikala.
Rabindra Patra, a local, alleged the irrigation project authorities have published forged lists of displaced people at different times and claimed to have identified land for the displaced. The government has been misled through such false reports, he added.
Delay in rehabilitation has added to the problems of the displaced. Local tribal leader Tribikram Nayak said the government had paid compensation money to the land losers about eight years ago, but many people have squandered away the money. “The delay in rehabilitation will leave an adverse impact on the economic condition of the people,” many villagers stated.
They also reasoned that due to lack of coordination among the project authorities, the revenue department and district administration, rehabilitation work is taking a backfoot.
It may be noted here that the project work was started May 9, 2009 at an estimated cost of Rs 428.32 crore. “But its cost has escalated to Rs 1,801 crore by 2013-14 while the project was to be completed by 2019,” sources said. PNN
