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Telengiri: uncertainty looms large over several families

KORAPUT: Satyabrata Sahu, Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) of Southern Division, and Arjun Muduli, a displaced person from Bispani village of Koraput block, are of the same opinion while speaking on the fate of the 581 families waiting displacement for the Telengiri medium irrigation project on the Raniguda river near Koraput. While Arjun and hundreds of people like him are feeling insecure of their future after they get finally displaced from their homeland, Mr. Sahu is highlighting the plans of the State government.

The project authorities, who initiated rehabilitation package to the people of the seven villages -- Ranigad, Malikarchi, Talamangra , Bispani, Dakra , Bagra, and Balipalaguda of Koraput , Jeypore and Borigumma -- blocks way back in 2004, remained silent for unknown reasons causing worry to people in the region, says Kamal Lochan Muduli of Bispani. While some families have been struggling with the district administration, most of the villagers received some compensation or the other. The amount they had received, though huge, was insufficient to purchase an agricultural land in the downstream of the project. Without any viable options in the hands, many of them are being lured by some fake private money investment companies, Nilakantha Muduli, a villager who deposited Rs.60,000 in such company, says. The company has assured him of greater returns. But illiteracy betrayed him for the bonds he had received had no mention of such returns.

While the administration boasted of the good package for rehabilitation, the calculation of Kamala Muduli of the village is different. Government paid them compensation for the patta land they had lost. But actually most of them were living on the Dangar and valley on which they had no official authority and was at least five times more than the land they had been compensated for. If the government wishes to give back a new life to the displaced families, it should come up with a better package, she says.

However, all the pending issues have been addressed even though the project is delayed, says Mr. Sahu. He was in Koraput to attend the Rehabilitation Periphery Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) meeting. Meanwhile, the estimated cost of the project, which was Rs.108 crores in the beginning, went up to Rs. 161 crores.

The disputed 262 cases have been settled and the compensation will be paid soon, while the rest 56 cases which are under consideration will be taken back to the village-level meetings to sort out whether those people had stayed before 1986 or not, Mr. Sahu says.

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