New Delhi, June 29: The National Human Rights Commission has deputed a special rapporteur to probe allegations that the Orissa government had forcibly evicted over 10,000 villagers from their homes in Bhadrak district to make way for a massive flood-control project.

The commission had earlier (May 12) issued notices to the state government asking it to explain within four weeks the charges of large-scale human rights violations in 50-odd villages in and around the river Salandi and its tributary Nalia. But the state has so far not responded to the allegations.

The last date for filing the response was June 17.

Acting on a second complaint, filed by advocate Radha Kanta Tripathy, the commission directed special rapporteur Damodar Sarangi to visit the area, collect the facts and submit a report to it within three weeks. The commission had earlier issued the notices to the state government on Tripathy’s initial complaint.

Tripathy’s complaint alleged that the state had in 2007 forcibly evicted thousands of villagers in complete violation of all rules and regulations to make way for a flood-control project. The project involves widening and deepening of the two rivers to control annual floods in the area.

The two rivers pass through hundreds of villages covering a distance of 200km.

The complaint stated that no requisite land acquisition notice has been issued by the state. Nor has the state government taken any steps to settle or rehabilitate the displaced villagers. Instead, the local irrigation and flood control division has been forcibly evicting the villagers, most of whom are dependent on agriculture, it stated.

The state government has also not heeded complaints demanding their resettlement and rehabilitation. Work has already started on the project — Salandi-Nalia river Sanskar project — and the state had illegally encroached upon hundreds of kilometres without paying any compensation to the displaced, it stated.

The Rs 100-crore project would also involve cutting down of lakhs and lakhs of trees, Tripathy says.