In preponderance of the cases the ongoing development model propelled by the market forces often goes against the interest of the very section of people that sacrifice their hearth and home for economic development of the nation. In order to throw light on the inadequacy of the state’s resettlement and rehabilitation policy measures for the people affected by the modern development projects and their social and ecological consequences on the livelihood of the ecosystem people, the paper attempts to make a critical analysis of the present state of living of the families displaced during 1950s and 1960s by three public sector steel plants in India. The findings are based on primary data collected by the author through fieldwork in the three steel cities and their peripheries during 2007-08.