Berhampur: TheKandhamal district administration has started the process of relocating residents of two villages under Raikia block which were affected by the massive landslides due to heavy rain under the influence of cyclone Arnab, which made landfall in Andhra Pradesh on Oct 28. “We have started the process of shifting all 15 families of Dengasi and 26 families of Indragada to safer locations near their villages,” said Kandhamal collector Vedbhushan on Friday. The administration has identified a site near Indragada to rehabilitate the families and is in the process of selecting a site near Sikabada to settle the families of Dengasi.The collector said they have already discussed with the villagers the selected sites for their permanent settlements and they have agreed. While Dengasi village was wiped out with all houses damaged in the massive landslides, around 26 houses were damaged in Indragada. Three members of a family, including a nine-month-old girl, perished in the landslides in Dengasi, the hilltop village.The district administration shifted the affected families to the nearby relief camp immediately after the mishap. Altogether, 37 people of Dengasi have been rehabilitated temporarily at Jogeswar High School, Manikeswar, and around 100 people of Indragada have been shifted to the nearby quarter of a revenue inspector and forest staff.They are still staying in the temporary relief camps, as they have no house in which to stay in their respective villages, while the district administration is providing cooked food in all three camps, said Sabyasachi Sahu, BDO, Raikia. “Now we are planning to shift them to another vacant building for smooth functioning of the school at Manikeswara,” he said. They will be staying in the temporary camps till completion of their houses at the new sites, while they will prepare food themselves, said the BDO. Govt will provide land to each of the families and funds for construction of the houses, he said.Recalling the horror of Oct 28 night, when massive landslides hit due to heavy rain and rolled the heavy boulders down to their houses, villagers refused to return there once again. “We had lost everything, why should we go there,” said Balangi Pradhan (75), who lost his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter in the landslides. “We requested the government to provide at least two acres of cultivable lands to each family, besides the homestead land to continue their occupation of farming,” said Bikash Pradhan, another resident.