Paradip, Oct. 20: The Odisha government has chalked out a project worth Rs 37 lakh to improve the living condition of 52 pro-Posco families, who were driven out of their ancestral houses about half-a-decade ago.

Thrown out of their homes in 2007 by protesters of mega steel project, the dislodged families living in transit colony would now get better shelter apart from other basic amenities.

The daily subsistence allowance for each of the transit colony dwellers has been revised.

With home-coming still a distant dream for the families in Badabagapur transit colony, the Jagatsinghpur district administration has finally initiated steps to help out the settlers reportedly living in terrible conditions.

“Basic requirements of resettled families are being taken care of with funds worth Rs 37 lakh sanctioned for the purpose. The administration will build an additional house for comfortable living of the residents. The administration would depute a doctor for periodic health check-up of the people living here. Sustenance allowance is being substantially hiked to meet with the rising cost of essential commodities. Besides, a pucca road is being laid to connect the colony with the main road,” said additional district magistrate Surajit Das.

“The daily sustenance allowance has been revised following the order of revenue divisional commission (central). Earlier, Rs 20-a-day allowance per head was being disbursed to the colony residents. Now, they are entitled to receive Rs 50-a-day. The sum will be disbursed to the rehabilitated families within a couple of days,” said Das.

The living conditions of the transit colony is being improved. The project would get under way shortly.

Steps are being taken to restore sanitation and hygiene in the temporary settlement. Each family living in the colony was allotted with a one-room house. Now, they would be converted into two-room houses.

At present, the colony is has 12 toilets and more are being constructed, he said.

The displaced families have the right to resettle. Once the Posco steel project rehabilitation colony is complete, these families will be accommodated there such as the other land-losing and displaced families of the project villages, Das said.

The opponents of Posco project hounded them out of their houses five years ago. While some of them started living in Badabagapur posco-transit colony, the rest had sought the refuge in relatives’ houses.

At least 52 families from Patana village in Jagatsinghpur had to pay for their pro-plant stance.

“We are leading a condemned life. Though the government has given us shelter in the transit colony, we are caught in a vicious cycle of goons’ anger and administrative indifference,” said Chandan Mohanty, a resident of the transit colony at Badabagapur in Jagatsinghpur district’s Erasama block.

More than 50 families had fled their native village after those opposing the steel plant troubled them.

The homeless were resettled in the transit colony on June 26, 2007. “We are not sure whether the steel project would come up or not. Our fate hangs in balance,” said Baina Mohanty, another inhabitant of the transit colony.