Balasore: Around 8,000 people of five villages residing near Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Balasore district were evacuated on Wednesday ahead of a missile test in the area.
People from four panchayats living within two and half kilometres range of the defence base were temporarily evacuated to nearby shelters in 21 vehicles, said an official of the Balasore district administration.
Apart from evacuation, the defence department has provided a compensation of Rs 300 to adults, Rs 150 to children and Rs 40 for food for people of all ages. While entertainment fees of Rs 15 have been given to the adults and Rs 10 to children.
Similarly, Rs 40 has been provided to each family of the four panchayts who left their houses while Rs 100 has been given for cattle feed and Rs 300 to 2,500 people working in various prawn gherries in the region.
"As per the directions given by the Balasore district administration, villagers of three revenues have been temporarily evacuated to nearby three cyclone shelters and a school. The process started at early in the morning and was over by 11 am. Arrangements for drinking water, fire tenders and ambulance have also been kept ready at these centres," said the Block Development Officer.
"We received the information over the public address system following which we came to the shelter here by walking on foot," said a woman of Bardhanpur who reached a cyclone shelter at Jaydev Kasba in Balasore district.
However, the information regarding the missile that will be test fired from the Chandipur ITR has not been revealed by the Defence Research and Development (DRDO) yet.
(Edited By Rashmi Ranjan Mohanty)
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