Pong dam displacement: 5 decades on, over 6k families still await rehabilitation

Even after five decades have passed since thousands of families were uprooted to make way for the construction of Pong Dam in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh (HP), the cases of 6,736 families, who await rehabilitation, are still pending.

These details were shared during a review meeting of the Pong Dam displaced, relief and rehabilitation committee chaired by state revenue minister Jagat Singh Negi on Friday. Additional chief secretary Onkar Sharma shared that 20,722 families in various sub-divisions of Kangra district were affected by the construction of the Pong Dam.

He said the process to provide land to 16,352 families was started, and in Rajasthan, cultivable land has been allocated to 9,616 affected families. However, cases for 6,736 families are still pending, and the government is taking appropriate measures to expedite the resolution of these cases.

The construction of the dam started in 1961 on the Beas near Pong village in Kangra district (then a part of Punjab), so that waters from its reservoir could be taken to the desert lands of Rajasthan and feed the extensive network of canal irrigation systems there. A total area of 75,000 acres, spread over 94 villages in Nurpur and Dehra tehsils in Himachal Pradesh, was acquired displacing 20,722 families and a population of 1.5 lakh.

During the meeting, the revenue minister said the state government is actively working to address the pending cases of Pong displaced persons. “The cases of Pong displaced persons who have not yet received land in Rajasthan have been submitted to the High Power Committee, chaired by the Secretary of the Water Resources Ministry,” Negi said.

In the next phase, the process of allocating land to those displaced persons without “murabbas” in Rajasthan will commence in accordance with established guidelines. To facilitate this, a team of state officials will soon travel to Bikaner for land inspection and to address other outstanding issues.

Negi said the government will provide all possible help to the Pong displaced people to fight the legal battle. Instructions have also been given to hold meetings with the revenue officers of Rajasthan every month to settle the pending cases in a timely manner. Along with this, a sub-committee will also be formed to resolve the problems of the people so that this committee can review the cases on a regular basis.