The district administration and the zilla parishad of Jalpaiguri have taken up the onus to permanently relocate residents of two villages located around 25 kilometres from Siliguri.

Both villages — Chamakdangi and Laltongbusty — are on the left bank of the Teesta river. In recent years, the river has been flooding both the villages and eroding chunks of land.

“Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has specifically instructed that all the families who live in Chamakdangi and Laltongbusty have to be permanently relocated to some other location. We have engaged teams to conduct a survey of their land and property in both the villages and are also in the process of identifying vacant government land where they would be shifted,” said a source in the administration.

On Saturday, a team from the district land and land reforms department, along with representatives of the zilla parishad, visited the affected villages. They surveyed the total area and the area of land that each family owns.

Located on the fringes of the Baikunthapur forest, the residents of these villages earn their livelihood through dairy, poultry and cattle rearing. Over the past couple of years, the Teesta is inching closer to the villages and has already washed away protection walls.

Sources said that altogether, 118 families will be relocated permanently. Among them, 82 families are from Chamakdangi while the rest are from Laltongbusty.

“As the Teesta is aggressively advancing at the villages and has also flooded some areas, the families have been shifted to safer places nearby. A team from the civic defence has been posted at Chamakdangi where the villagers are demolishing their houses and taking away wood, iron, and other items which they could salvage from the debris.

On Friday, Gautam Deb, the mayor of Siliguri, visited the spot and distributed relief materials among the affected families. He also apprised Mamata in detail about the situation, following which the chief minister instructed the administration to work for permanent relocation of the families.

Manisha Roy, a zilla parishad member, said that the surveyors had identified three locations — Shibnagar, Kholachand-Fapri, and Raj-Fapri — on the outskirts of Siliguri and under the Dabgram-I panchayat of Rajganj block in Jalpaiguri, for the families.

“Shibnagar is an ideal site for their permanent rehabilitation, as the area is well connected with roads and land is suitable for construction of houses,” she said.

An official of the district administration said that a report would be sent to MAmat for her approval.

“Each family will get around three cottahs of land to build their houses,” he said.