Koraput: Thirty years back, they were displaced by the construction of the Upper Kolab Multipurpose Project (UKMP) and then were rehabilitated in a camp under Kotpad block in Koraput district.
After living in the camp for three decades, the villagers have now named it as Baikunthapur and have urged the government to rercognise their camp as a revenue village. A revenue village is a small administrative region with defined borders.
“Though we have been living here over last 30 years we are still identified as camp residents for which we felt neglected. Always there was a conflict with nearby villagers as they called us refugees,” sadi Dasarathy Burudi, a resident of Camp 6.
“Hence, we decided to shun the refugee tag and give a name to our village,” he added.
Several elected panchayat representatives, including Kotpad MLA Chandra Sekhar Majhi, attended the renaming ceremony held recently.
Originally residents of Khiloput village, which got submerged in the Kolab reservoir in 1980s, at least 88 families were rehabilitated at camp 6, situated 70 km from here.
An official said first the villagers have to pass a resolution at the gram sabha of Batasana panchayat, under which it comes, for changing the name of the camp.
“I will raise the mater in the upcoming session of the Assembly and all required steps will be taken to ensure that the camp gets the status of a village,” the MLA said.
Similarly, 96 and 120 families residing at camp 5 and camp 7 respectively have named their habitations Santoshpur and Purusottampur.
PNN
