The district administration is all set to evict the settlements set up at the embankment of the Pattamundai Canal at Ghagara under Kendrapada tehsil, aiming to renovate the Pattamundai Canal by expanding and strengthening the canal embankment.
As a result, the concerned department has served notices to the settlers and directed to make the Government land encroachment free within a fortnight else the district administration would take legal steps. Nearly 44 Dalit families, who have already received notices, are now spending sleepless nights as regards their resettlement.
According to the poverty stricken Dalits, they were the natives of Ghagara and had houses at the village. But during Super Cyclone, they left their houses and took shelter at the Government land of Pattamundai canal embankment in 1999 after their houses were destroyed in the cyclone and flood.
They said they had to stay at the Pattamundai canal embankment by constructing thatched cottages. In 2004, they knocked the doors of the Chief Minister urging to take steps for rehabilitating them. The Chief Minister too had directed the district administration to take steps for their rehabilitation.
later, the district administration installed tubewells and also provided electrification to their settlements. The inhabitants were under the impression that with the direction of the Chief Minister, the district administration had been taking steps for rehabilitating them on the Government land. But, the Pattamundai canal division’s eviction notices on 44 families for leaving the Government land has not just shocked them but made them worry about resettlement in such a short period of time.
“What should we doIJ Where would we goIJ There are several families who do not have land in their names,” the Dalits lamented, adding, “We have urged the district administration and the canal authority to provide us some more days and also to take steps for rehabilitatingthe landless persons.”
According to official sources, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) earlier decided to renovate, expand and strengthen the 80.5 km Pattamundai canal at an estimated cost of about Rs 1.10 crore. In 2012, the ADB conducted a survey at Ghagara. Earlier, the local tehsildar and the Executive Engineer of Pattamundai canal division had organised a public grievance meeting with the people.
The encroachers also had given their consent to make the Government land encroachment free by quitting the place after taking compensation package as per the ADB norms.