A file photo :
Y.S. RANA :
LOHARA (Pong Dam)—Hope may replace despair in the lives of thousands of oustees of Bhakra and Pong Dams if one goes by the assurances given by the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh. But on the other, the history of the issue says otherwise. Pritam Singh was a class VI student when more than 50 bigas of land owned by his family nearby Pong Dam was acquired for its construction. Today, he is no more but his family scattered to various places in search of manual jobs for survival. Once known as landlords are now being called landless and thrown in the desert of Rajasthan to fend themselves. Most of them could not adapt to the prevailing cultural, social, traditional and environmental conditions came back and prefer to live in penury. Around 30,000 people have been displaced due to Pong Dam construction.
Today, number of Pritams now in his 70s, whose land was acquired for “new temple of resurgent of India” after 50 years of their displacement.
It is stated that 20,290 acres of forest land and 23,863 acres of agricultural land inundated by the reservoirs of Bhakra Dam. As per the revenue records, around 11,777 families of 376 villages were rendered homeless/landless and 118 ancient temples were submerged in Bhakra Dam water. The Bhakra Dam Oustees Association (Regd), Fatehbad, Haryana stated that around 2836 families of 376villages from districts of Bilaspur (256), Una (110), Mandi (5) and Solan (5) were uprooted due to the Bhakra Dam.They were given 16 marla land for a house each and some land for cultivation in 13 vilages of Sirsa, 15 villages of Fatehbad and one village of Hisar. But so far 969 registries had been done and 1867 were yet to be regularized though oustees had submitted conveyance deed. Even in 1979 the Petition Committee of Lok Sabha had submitted its report for setting up of National Fund for Rehabilitation of the oustees. The displaced families have also deprived of their reservation right in the Dogra Regiment which is applicable to the bona fide of Himachalis.
After 50 years of completion, oustees of Bhakra Dam and more so of the Pong Dam in Himachal Pradesh are yet to be rehabilitated fully. About 364 families have been allotted plots near Bilaspur town but the oustees belonging to districts of Una, Mandi and Solan (1242 families) had been left out. Some of the displaced people were rehabilitated in Sarsa, Hisar and Fatehbad districts of Haryana. Several others were settled in Ropar (Punjab) and Bilaspur, Nalagrah and Una in Himachal Pradesh. Apart from this, some of the displaced have also been resettled along the forested slopes on both sides of the reservoir from Bhakra to Slaapad and Lathyaani.
Manshi Asher of Himdhara, an NGO working for the rights of Bhakra dam oustees, said 36,000 families had lost their homes and land to the project. “While they received some compensation at rates varying from Rs 1,000 per acre for agricultural land to Rs 250 for uncultivable land, the landless received merely Rs 200 as an overall compensation,” Asher said. There is no official figure for agricultural labourers, landless persons, potters and many others who were displaced by the dam. The official records only show 11,000 as project displaced people.
Before the construction of the dam, an agreement was signed between the ruler of erstwhile Bilaspur princely state and the government of Punjab on July 7, 1948, titled the Bhakra dam agreement. The agreement spoke of rehabilitation measures for the displaced people, which are yet to be implemented. In 1971, the Himachal Pradesh government evolved a rehabilitation and resettlement policy that provided for “land for land” (agriculture as well as homestead). Even this policy has not been implemented
. In September last, the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh has taken up the matter in the Northern Zonal Council (NZC) meet held in Chandigarh. In the meeting it was suggested to constitute a Coordination Committee of Relief and Rehabilitation Officers of Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan for time bound settlement of pending issues of Pong Dam oustees. This time also, oustees hope it may not prove a lip service to them. EOM