Orissa government on Monday urged the people to return to their villages in Kandhamal district as there had been no report of violence since October 2008, official sources said.
The issue of Kandhamal riot victims was taken up at a high level meeting in Bhubaneswar chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
"About 200 families were yet to return to their villages," Kandhamal district collector Krushna Kumar told mediapersons after attending the meeting.
Stating that the district administration had appealed the people to return to their villages without any fear, the collector said the administration would provide security and all other assistance to the riot victims.
While Christian leaders including the archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Rapheal Cheenath claimed that the people feared to return to villages as miscreants were still roaming freely, the collector pointed out that the riot victims did not want to return as they could arrange employment in urban pockets including the state capital.
Fear was not at all a factor in Kandhamal now days, Kumar said. Of the 4,818 houses destroyed in the riot, 4,200 had been completed while 300 others were on verge of completion, he stated.
All the 230 churches had been provided with compensation, Kandhamal special administrator M S Padhee said. "Kandhamal had achieved progress due to implementation of a special package announced by the state government immediately after the 2008 riot," Padhee said, adding that the the riot-hit district recorded second best district in terms of implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes.
