With the relocation of Panchuvarahi deity from the sea-battered Satabhaya village, Odisha’s first resettlement project for the sea erosion- hit people has reached its concluding phase.

Almost all the families targeted for rehabilitation have forsaken their ancestral bond with Satabhaya and have moved to the safety of Bagapatia resettlement colony.

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Six families who are yet to leave the sea-erosion-hit village have been asked to vacate the village in a week, said Rajnagar Tehsildar, Nihar Ranjan Mallick. The presiding deity of Panchuvarahi shrine was relocated from Satabhaya to Bagapatia on April 20.

Following the shifting of deity, around 70 families who had stuck to the village voluntarily shifted themselves to Bagapatia. They have been provided homestead land at the project colony. Besides house building grants were also provided to them.

They are presently staying at temporary kutcha houses. Permanent house building work has already been initiated by them, said the official. Constantly experiencing the travails of seeing their houses gobbled up by mighty Bay of Bengal, almost all of the 571 identified families have left for good their homeland in Satabhaya to get resettled in Bagapatia resettlement colony, situated around 8 Km from the sea-erosion-hit Satabhaya cluster of villages.

The seaside village which was once abuzz with human activities now wears the look of ghost hamlet. As per rehabilitation package, each family has been provided with 10 decimal of homestead land and Rs. 1.5 lakh for construction of one housing unit.

Sixteen revenue villages spread over 3440 acres of land in Satabhaya panchayat were reduced to a couple of hamlets- Satabhaya and Kanhupur as furious sea battered these areas almost on a daily basis.

The state government has faced innumerable anti-displacement movements in various districts. The one by the villagers of Satabhaya and Kanhupur is on the contrary for displacement.

People here wanted to be displaced and rehabilitated as sea made steady advance towards their villages. The decision to relocate 571 families living at the vulnerable coastal villages had been taken in 2008 at a meeting chaired by chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

The project in Kendrapara district is incidentally the state’s first-ever rehabilitation and resettlement project for people displaced by sea erosion.