Residents of erosion-hit Satabhaya and Kanhupur villages in Kendrapara district are yet to be rehabilitated to another area. Telegraph picture

Kendrapara, April 12: Odisha’s first project to resettle the people affected by sea erosion at Satabhaya area has hardly moved an inch.

Over 500 families are left to fend themselves against the scourge of sea, as the rehabilitation project has remained a non-starter. The people are helpless as the sea continues to march towards Satabhaya almost on a daily basis.

People living at 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.

The foundation stone of the resettlement colony at Bagapatia village under Rajnagar tehsil was laid on June 8 last year. However, the project has not moved an inch since then. The foundation plaque exposes the administrative insensitivity towards human plight. Deeply upset over the inactivity, residents of Satabhaya have dismissed the governmental resettlement plan as a populist gimmick.

“The land required for the resettlement colony is yet to be acquired. Private land owners have only received acquisition notices and are yet to hand over the land to the local administration. Everybody is sceptical about the intent of government,” said Sashmita Das, former sarpanch of Satabhaya gram panchayat.

The people of Satabhaya are clamouring to be displaced while elsewhere in the state, people are found resisting land displacement. 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 Patnaik in 1992 had failed to take off.

Days before the 2004 Assembly polls, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone of a resettlement colony at Magarakanda. The project could not take off then as it came under classified forestland. The administration repeated the same exercise ahead of the panchayat polls. The promise for completion of resettlement plan within a year has come a cropper yet again.

“The displaced people are being resettled on 132.5 acres of a compact patch of land. At present, the land acquisition work is going on. We hope the work for resettlement colony will commence shortly,” said Rajnagar legislator Alekh Jena.

Kendrapara collector Pradipta Kishore Pattnaik said: “This important project has been delayed for multiple factors. Now the administration is trying to expeditiously relocate the people of the threatened villages. The land acquisition process is expected to come to an end within a month.”

“The resettlement colony is going to have all the basic amenities. We hope it will be a model village for human habitation. There will be provisions for electricity, drinking water, anganwadi centre, panchayat office, primary school, village community centre, buffer embankment and a village pond for pisciculture,” Pattnaik said.

The administration also planned to relocate the Panchuvarahi temple to the resettlement colony, Pattnaik said.