28 years on, no compensation for ITR oustees

BALASORE: Several families, mostly farmers and fishermen displaced by the Integrated Test Range (ITR) here languish in penury, awaiting compensation 28 years after their lands were acquired for the project. With agricultural lands lost to the project, the oustees have been reduced to daily wage labourers. Several pleas to the authorities concerned for redressal of the grievances have fallen on deaf ears.Be it Ganesh Chandra Jena, Pagala Dalei or any other member of the 76 displaced families of Bhimpur village, every oustee has similar tales of deprivation to narrate. Jena still awaits the Rs. 52,000 he is entitled to for the 12 decimals of land acquired for the project. Toiling as a daily wager, Jena and his family live in  a hut while buildings for the project have towered in the vicinity. “I have not received a single penny as compensation till date and am left with nothing more than four decimals of land at present. I have been making futile rounds of the office of rehabilitation officials and district collectors for about 20 years now,” Jena complains.The case of Pagala Dalei is marginally different. Dalei and his brother Reba, working as share-croppers for a livelihood at present, had lost three acres of land to the project. Initially they had received a compensation of Rs. 18,000 per acre. However, the compensation was raised to Rs. 50,000 later and the Daleis are yet to receive the pending amount. Sources said around 30 families were meted with similar treatment as the Daleis.Ashok Kumar Das, a lawyer representing the deprived oustees said “It was decided that every family who has lost over one-third of their land would receive compensation. However, compensation seems to be a far cry,” Das said.After several fruitless petitions to the Prime Minister and Defence Minister, the oustees have threatened to embark upon a fast-unto-death if the grievances are not addressed.District administration officials attributed the irregularities in disbursal of compensation to confusing survey reports.  “Initially a tehsildar reported that the villagers did not lose one-third of their lands. After the villagers contested this report, the tehsildar retracted and reported in favour of the villagers,” said ADM Sribatsa Jena. “As the reports were confusing, we have sent them to Government Prosecutor for legal opinion,” he added.