https://countercurrents.org/2022/03/pong-dam-evictees-have-not-received-justice-even-after-50-years/
It was over 50 years back that over 20,000 families living in villages of Kangra region were asked to leave their beautiful settlements to make way for Pong Dam constructed on Beas river in Himachal Pradesh. The land here was so fertile that it produced bountiful diverse crops without using any chemical fertilizers and pesticides. So people were very, very reluctant to leave their villages.
What made their predicament worse was that resettlement offered to them was in distant Rajasthan. A lot of promises were made that they will get irrigated land and all facilities. Finally they left, sadly and slowly.
Now more than 50 years have passed and the second generation of the displaced people is still struggling for rehabilitation!
On March 4 a delegation of their organization, the Pong Bandh Visthapit Samiti ( the Pong Dam Evictees Committee) met the Union Minister of State for Water Resources at the time of his Himachal visit. Later they told reporters that they still did not get a satisfactory response for resolving their problems. A press note issued by them subsequently explained that 20,772 families were displaced while only 16,352 were found eligible for the allotment of land. However only about 5000 had been rehabilitated properly till date.
By Bharat Dogra
12/03/2022