Despite Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s pro-tribal image, over 200 tribal families displaced in 1998 to pave way for construction of Golden Quadrilateral National Highway are left in the lurch. They are yet to be rehabilitated as promised by the district administration. Over 500 tribals, including children, who had migrated from Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj districts, had been eking out their livelihood as daily wagers in tenements near the National Highway-5, adjacent to Bhadrak district headquarters. They were forced to leave their huts during the expansion work of the national highway with paltry sums as compensation. “We ran from pillar to post after eviction. The district administration informally provided a plot of land near Korkora village after one year,” said Abhaya Hembram. But we are yet to get the record of rights of the land and are still treated as the encroachers, he complained. “Though enlisted in the voters’ list we are yet to get rice and kerosene under BPL scheme as the district administration has not yet given us BPL card,” said Shanti Munda, a villager. The dilapidated concrete road and a defunct tube-well in their slum speak volumes of the official apathy. The anganwadi centre for the children is a sham. Bhadrak Block Development Officer (BDO) Ramesh Jena admitted the tribals of Nuasahi are eligible to get financial assistance for Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) houses. But lack of own homestead land has put them in ineligible category. Queried, the BDO said the land given by the district administration for rehabilitation in 1998 is a ‘gochar-land’ (grazing ground) which cannot be transferred to any individual’s name.