Sea erosion-hit Satabhaya village in Kendrapara district. Telegraph picture

Kendrapara, June 8: Without acquiring an inch of land, the state government today moved to relocate over 500 families affected by sustained sea erosion at Satabhaya gram panchayat in Orissa’s Kendrapara district.

The foundation stone of the resettlement colony at Bagapatia village under Rajnagar tehsil was laid today but residents of Satabhaya dismissed the government move as a populist gimmick.

“We are skeptical of the government move. Not an inch of land has been acquired for the rehabilitation colony. Private land owners have only received land acquisition notices and are yet to hand over the land to the local administration,” said Sashmita Das, sarpanch of Satabhaya gram panchayat.

Days before the 2004 Assembly polls, chief minister Navin Pattnaik had laid the foundation stone of a resettlement colony at Magarakanda. The project could not come up then as it came under classified forestland. It seems the administration was repeating the same exercise.

“People from Satabhaya turned up at foundation stone laying ceremony. But they are apprehensive that the resettlement colony would be inordinately delayed. No land has been acquired for it. Till it comes up, we would be left to cope with the furious sea,” said the sarpanch.

“Bagapatia village was preferred for the project because of easy availability of encroachment and litigation-free revenue land. Besides, it is free from forest land and wildlife sanctuary embargo. Settling the people in this locality would be within the framework of rules and regulations. The colony is going to have all basic amenities. We hope it would be a model village for human habitation. There would be provision of electricity, drinking water, anganwadi centre, panchayat office, primary school, village community centre, buffer embankment and playground besides village pond for pisciculture,” Kendrapara collector Pradipta Kishore Pattnaik said.

“For factors beyond our control, this all-important project has been delayed. Now the administration is trying to expeditiously relocate the people of the two threatened villages,” Pattnaik added.

“The displaced people are being resettled in 132.5 acres of a compact patch of land. The land acquisition work is presently going on in full swing. The work for resettlement colony would commence shortly,” said Rajnagar legislature Alekh Jena.

“The people of Satabhaya are virtually crying to be displaced from here while people are found resisting against land displacement in other parts of the state. With sea steady advancing towards them, villagers here are fervently pleading for resettlement over the years. An earlier project envisaged by former chief minister Biju Pattnaik in 1992 had failed to take off,” said Bijoy Kumar Kabi, environmental activist.

“The resettlement project of this nature is first of its kind in the state. The administration has resolved to resettle the affected villagers expeditiously. Our plan is also to relocate the Panchuvarahi temple to the resettlement collocated in the state so far ,” said the collector of Kendrapara district, Pattnaik.

On 12 August 2008, the state government had announced a comprehensive rehabilitation project for residents of Satabhaya and Kanhupur village that have been constantly eroded by the advancing sea.

Project-related work was hardly taken up despite the chief minister announcing the resettlement plan about three years ago.

People living in Satabhaya and Kanhupur villages under Rajnagar Tehsil are literally living on the edge in the face of unabated erosion by the sea over the years