KENDRAPARA: Around 118 families of sea erosion-hit Satabhaya panchayat in Kendrapara can finally heave a sigh of relief as their rehabilitation will see the light of day after long.The district administration on Thursday decided to rehabilitate and resettle these families living in uncertain conditions at the colony in Bagapatia, located around 12 km from the sea.“These families will join the earlier 571 families who were rehabilitated in 2018. We will provide 10 decimals of land, `1.5 lakh and houses under Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana to each family,” said Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Basant Kumar Rout.
Villagers are relieved at the decision. “Many villagers got houses as part of the rehabilitation drive three years back but I wasn’t one of them. I have been living in fear everyday with the constant sound of the roaring sea so this news comes as a welcome relief,” said a local Bishnucharan Behera. With the sea destroying two tube-wells in the village, people have to trek for miles to the nearby Barahapur to collect water.Another resident Duryodhan Mallick also faced similar circumstances with his father and two brothers having been rehabilitated. After two years of running from pillar to post, he finally can have a piece of land to himself, said an elated Mallick.
The 17-km stretch of the beach at Satabhaya under Rajnagar block is said to be the fastest-eroding beach on Odisha coast. More than 1000 homes and large tracts of agricultural lands have been devoured by the rising sea in the past 40 years. Earlier a cluster of seven villages, only a small portion of it remains with Gobindapur, Mohanpur, Kanhupur, Chintamanipur, Badagahiramatha and Kharikula villages vanishing from the map.