BHUBANESWAR: The hundreds of families under Sorada tehsil of Ganjam district and Lakhanpur tehsil under Jharsuguda district, who had been living their lives amid dire conditions for decades after being displaced by the original Sorada reservoir project and Hirakud dam project respectively, finally got their closure on Thursday.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik distributed homestead and land pattas to 962 and 700 people respectively from 17 villages that were displaced by the Sorada reservoir project more than a century ago. He also resolved the six-decade-long problems of the 866 families of Lakhanpur Tehsil who had been ousted for the Hirakud dam.
The original Sorada Reservoir project was envisaged during the British era but did not materialise. The British government had proposed to construct the reservoir by connecting two hills Khunteswari and Raipada and also laid the foundation stone in 1896. But Sorada reservoir was constructed at a different location. However, the land of the 17 villages continued to be marked Jalasaya kissam since then.
The chief minister’s attention was drawn to the issue following 5T and Nabin Odisha chairman VK Pandian’s visit to the area in August this year. On his instructions, the Water Resources department transferred 1362.049-acre land to the Revenue and Disaster Management department for settlement in favour of the affected people of 17 villages recently. The land pattas were distributed among the affected people on Thursday.
The families displaced by Hirakud project had been waiting for over 60 years. According to the chief minister’s office, the state government had decided to provide land rights over 3,231 acres to 2,205 displaced families of 18 villages in Lakhanpur tehsil and one in Jharsuguda. Pattas were provided to 866 displaced persons of seven villages in the first phase.
Settlement of land related problems of the Lakhanpur tehsil was started after the visit of Pandian to Jharsuguda district on August 20. Survey for providing land pattas in all the 18 villages of the tehsil has been taken up by the administration. After completion, 1,339 families of 11 villages will also be provided pattas, the CMO stated.
The chief minister said he is happy that land issues of people of Lakhanpur and Sorada tehsils have been resolved.Pandian said that due to the sincere efforts of the chief minister, the problems of many years have been resolved.