Families facing sea erosion to be shifted

Kendrapada, Aug 19 (UNI) All 132 families of Satabhaya and Kanpur facing sea erosion,will be shifted to safer places and rehabilitated under the Bansadhara project.

The district administration has come forward to rehabilitate 67 families of Satabhaya and 65 families of Kanhupur at Magarkanda, Rabindrapalli and Dantiapada under Basundhara project by showing them landless, official sources said.

The families, unable to cope with the fury of nature, decided to leave the state and settle outside in protest against the step-motherly attitude of the state government to rehabilitate them in safer place.

According to the Rajnagar Tahasildar Netrananda Mallick, the district administration had given green signal to the local authority to provide four decimal of land along with a cash of Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 to each family for constructing house in the proposed sites.

The rehabilitation work, he said, would be completed within two months.

The district administration had also planned to construct cyclone centre, health centre, temple and a community centre if the families preferred to settle in the new places permanently. They were even assured agriculture land near the resettlement colony.

The inhabitants of two villages under Satabhaya gram panchayat had been facing high tides, heavy waves in regular intervals since last two decades. The sea water on several occasions, had entered into the land base and so far 90 houses were completely washed away due to the onslaught of nature.

Since 1960s, the fast-moving sea water had already grabbed four human habitations and had been threatening Satabhaya and Kanhupur.

The area witnessed the worst catastrophe in 1971, when cyclonic storm had wiped out nearly 8,000 people in and around Satabhaya.

Recently, a thousand year-old panchbarahi temple was inundated in a six feet high tidal water and 15 thatched houses, including the Satabhaya Nodal Primary school were collapsed as sea water played havoc in the village during the high tide period.

The villagers of Satabhaya and Kanhupur staged demonstration in front of Rajnagar Tahasil office demanding adequate steps on a war footing basis to save their lives and property from the onslaught of Nature.

UNI