Erosion-hit Khagaria villagers cry for rehabilitation

KHAGARIA: Hundreds of villagers in Chautham, Gogri and Beldaur blocks of Khagaria district, who had been rendered homeless due to erosion caused by the Bagmati, the Kosi and the Ganga rivers in the past, are yet to be rehabilitated.
The affected villages include Lalpur, Terasi, Saraiya, Deoka, Kaithi, Tegachhii and Jaiprabhanagar under Chautham block, Chaidha, Banii, Sirjua, Navtoliya, Hardyalnagar and Temha under Gogri block and Chorhli, Pachauth, Darhii and Etmadi under Beldaur block.
The changing course of these turbulent rivers had eroded acres of fertile land and houses, forcing hundreds of families to migrate to safer places. “Erosion is a never-ending problem for us. We have to face this almost every year,” said Pradip Mandal, a local.
Several families have taken shelter on the Badla-Nagarpara and Gogri-Narainpur embankments as the state government has failed to come up with any concrete plan to rehabilitate them.
The villagers had staged dharnas and blocked roads in the past demanding proper rehabilitation, but to no avail. Residents of Tegachhi village had launched a 27-day-long agitation last year to draw the attention of the district administration towards their plight, but nothing has been done yet.
Khagaria DM Anirudh Prasad and other senior officials had visited the area on July 7 last year and assured the villagers that necessary steps would be taken within three months. However, there has been no end to villagers’ plight yet.
The DM has now asked the Chautham circle officer (CO) to take necessary steps to rehabilitate the villagers. “If the CO fails to implement the order, strong action will be taken against him,” a senior district administration official said.