Date:27/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/27/stories/2008122755300600.htm

New Delhi

Problems aplenty for families returned from camps

Sib Kumar Das

TENGEDAPATHAR (KANDHAMAL): A hard and lonely life awaits communal violence-hit families who are returning to their villages and hamlets in Kandhamal districts.

A large number of aggrieved families prefer not to live in their devastated homes after coming out of the relief camps. Several hamlets like Tengedapathar on the outskirts of Tikabali, where most houses had fallen prey to communal arson are still deserted. Binod Chandra Digal and his family were the only family living at the Tengedapathar hamlet. Amidst the charred remnants of houses and a devastated church, live seven persons of this family including three children. The youngest one happens to be the four-month old daughter of Binod, who was born in the Tikabali relief camp, where they had taken shelter.

Family of Binod’s brother Madan Digal are still in the relief camp. Binod, his wife Kaushalya and three children along with Binod’s aged parents have decided to return to their home from Tikabali relief camp. Six other families of the hamlet have also left the relief camp along with them to return to their homes. But all other families preferred to leave their homes and stay with their relatives at other villages.

Binod’s family was left all alone to fight with problems of life at the deserted village. His uncle Chakra Digal who used to live at the village also preferred to leave the village and live in Bhubaneswar.

Basanti Digal, the aged mother of Binod, says it is quite hard for them to live all alone in the village and they are compelled to live here as they did not have any other place to take shelter. Kaushalya Digal, the wife of Binod, is too worried about the future and health of her daughter. “Till some other families come over to live at the village, we would find it too insecure and panicky but we are compelled to live here,” says Binod.

The work to rebuild burnt down houses at the hamlet is yet to start. So, families of this hamlet are not ready to return back.

But it is Kaushlya who compelled Binod to leave the relief camp at Tikabali as she did not find the health condition at the relief camp suitable for her new born child. Now it would be hard for them to return to the relief camp.