Rehabilitation goes wrong as villagers return in search of work

KENDRAPARA: Giridhari Dalei of sea-erosion hit Satabhaya village was on cloud nine last year after he was given a house at the rehabilitation colony at Bagapatia, 12 km away from the sea. 
Five months hence, he is back at his native notwithstanding the dangers posed by sea-surge. It is a question of livelihood and sustenance, he says when confronted on the issue of leaving the safe environs of the new settlement.

“We left because there are no means of earning livelihood at Bagapatia. Despite all the dangers here, we can make our living by catching fish and crabs at the creek. We also collect honey from the nearby forest. Our cattle graze in the meadows in the vicinity of the village”, Giridhari explains.
Many like him, who have left the rehabilitation colony to come back to Satabhaya, profess the same reason. The Government provided only 10 decimals of low lying land and Rs 2 lakh per family.  The people had to spend much of the money on filling earth to make the land suitable for building houses and thus left with resources to construct small houses. Besides, the administration had made no provision of livelihood rehabilitation, they stated.

Another villager Bikram Das said not much is left of Satabhaya village as many  families have now settled in Bagapatia. “I could not stay at Bagapatia as I own 10 cows. It is not possible for me to build a cowshed at  Bagapatia as the Government has provided me only 10 decimals of  land. Last month, I repaired my old thatched house at Satabhaya and am eking out a living by selling milk here, “ said another villager Bikram Das.

Around 130 families who were given houses at the rehabilitation colony have now returned to Satabhaya.  However, their problems are far from over.  The marching sea had consumed the last tube well of Satabhaya recently as a result of which there is acute shortage of drinking water in the village. The villagers trek around one km to the nearby Barahapur village to collect water from the two tube wells there.  

“But people are determined not to leave as the creeks, forest, fish ponds , shrimp farms  and agricultural lands provide them with their livelihood,” said Nigamananda Rout, the former sarapanch of Satabhaya gram panchayat.  Large tracts of Satabhaya were wiped out by rising sea level f0llowing which the Government shifted 571 families from the village at the rehabilitation colony at Bagapatia. But some families are still staying in the village for fishing and farming purposes. 

The Government has no plans to start any developmental work in Satabhaya, said Kendrapara Sub-Collector Sanjay Mishra.