The landlosers at the Posco transit colony in Jagatsinghpur. Telegraph picture

Paradip, Aug. 3: Fifty-two families from Patana village in Jagatsinghpur, who were hounded out of their homes more than five years ago by protesters of the Posco steel project, would now get revised subsistence allowance, apart from an additional living place at the transit colony in Erasama block of Jagatsinghpur district.

The district administration has moved to help the settlers reportedly living in poor economic conditions.

“The daily sustenance allowance has been revised following order of the revenue divisional commission (central). Earlier, Rs 20-a-day allowance per head was being disbursed to the colony inhabitants. Now, they are entitled to receive Rs 50-a-day as per the revised package,” said Paradip additional district magistrate Surajit Das.

It has also been decided to improve the living condition of the transit colony. Steps are being taken to restore sanitation and hygiene in the temporary settlement. Each family living in the colony was provided with a one-room house. Now, it would be converted into two-room house, he said.

Once the Posco steel project rehabilitation colony was completed, these families, along with other landlosers and displaced families of the project villages, would be housed there, Das said.

While some of the displaced persons were living in Badabagapur Posco transit colony, the rest had sought refuge in their relatives’ houses. The people, rendered homeless, were resettled in the transit colony on June 26, 2007.

“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 Badagabapur in Erasama block.

Forty-eight-year-old Mohanty owned two acres of fertile cultivable land and a betelvine over 40 decimals. His monthly income from the crop fields and betel plants used to be no less than Rs 20,000.

Five years after being shunted out from birthplace, the four-member family is being doled out Rs 2,400 a month as subsistence allowance by the district administration.

“It’s a case of violation of human rights. We are living banished because the administration is looking the other way. We want to go back to our village regardless of the fate of the steel project. The government should ensure our safe return,” Mohanty said.

“We are not sure whether the steel project would come up. Our fate hangs in balance,” said Baina Mohanty, another inhabitant of the colony.