SRIKAKULAM: With no alternative, they have pitched their huts and are leading lives no better than refugees. These people have been displaced from the Vamsadhara reservoir project in Srikakulam district.
With the State government setting the end of this fiscal as the deadline to complete the project, district officials have no other option but to evict the people from 19 villages in three mandals - Kotturu, Hiramandalam, and LN Peta - which are to be submerged under the reservoir.
From Hiramandalam, 5,619 families, from Kottur 1,184 families and from LN Peta mandal 350 families are being evacuated. They are to be rehabilitated in 13 colonies.However, the problem is that of the colonies: only eight have been completed and the remaining five are still pending. Several of the displaced are yet to start construction of their houses in the plots allotted to them in the colonies. Except for drinking water and electricity, no other basic infrastructure is in place in these five colonies.
The reason for the displaced not having their houses ready is that some of them have received their settlements from the government only 3-4 months ago. Majority of these villagers have not even left assuming that it would take some more time for the works to commence and they have plenty of time to start construction of their houses.
Some of the evicted complained that they were forced to leave their villages even before they had made alternate arrangements. “I received full and final settlement just four months ago and our family along with other villagers were evicted by the officials two months back,” Ponna Somulu of Chinna Kollivalasa village in Hiramandalam mandal said. He demanded to know how anyone can expect them to construct a house in two months time. It would take at least nine months to have a house ready. So, huts were the only shelter for my family, he said.