KENDRAPARA: Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Pramila Mallik on Friday informed the State Assembly that around 247 sea-erosion-hit families of Satabhaya Gram Panchayat in Kendrapara will be shifted to the rehabilitation colony in Bagapatia. She was replying to the question raised by Rajnagar MLA Dhruba Sahoo. In 2013, the government had rehabilitated 571 displaced families.
The division bench of Odisha High Court comprising Justice Biswajit Mohanty and Justice BP Satapathy had on May 20, 2022 directed the district administration to rehabilitate 247 families who were not allotted any land in the rehabilitation colony, following a petition filed by one Bishnu Charan Behera and others.
Presently, 17,049 people of 571 displaced families live in the rehabilitation colony. The houses were provided under Biju Puccha Ghar Yojna (BPGY) under which a high school and nodal upper primary school was also built in Bagapatia. The district administration also built 19 roads, a multipurpose cyclone centre, four Anganwadi centres and a market complex with 14 shops. As many as 32 tube wells, two cremation grounds and a village library were constructed among others.
Plans are on to build a public restroom and Kalyan Mandap too, said Mallick. Poultries and goats were provided to members of 15 women self-help groups (SHGs) under Odisha Livelihoods Mission project to help them become self-sufficient, she added.
The 17-km stretch of the beach along Satabhaya Gram Panchayat under Rajnagar block is believed to be the fastest-eroding beach of Odisha. In the 40-year span, the sea has battered around 1,000 homes and large tracts of farmlands. Satabhaya was a cluster of seven villages out of which six have disappeared under the sea, said former lecturer Dharanidhar Rout.