Struggling for rehab, Pong Dam evictees have not received justice after 50 years

By Bharat Dogra
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.
This data is slightly different in some other reports but what is common in most of the reports on the plight of these displaced people is that a very significant percentage of them have not been rehabilitated yet.
Although the original idea was that the irrigation water of the canals of this project will bring under cultivation land in Ganganagar region of Rajasthan which will be given to these displaced families. However with the availability of water land values shot up and there were encroachments by powerful persons. In these conditions it was difficult for newcomers from hilly areas to occupy and cultivate land. Several of them were reduced to merely complaining about encroachments, while others were allotted land instead in the more remote desert areas of Jaisalmer which were devoid of the most basic facilities. What is more how could people used to the cold weather of Himachal Pradesh survive in the extreme heat of the Thar desert? The net result was that many families were unable to settle down at new places or to cultivate the land allotted to them or both.
This situation in turn led to prolonged legal cases and one can imagine to what extent those who had been evicted from their land and livelihoods could fight legal cases. After some time this took the form of a Himachal versus Rajasthan dispute as Rajasthan was alleged to have not fulfilled its part of the dam and canal related agreement in terms of satisfactory rehabilitation of people. Another strong view emerged that if the Rajasthan government is unable to settle the displaced households in a satisfactory way, then it should pay the costs of the satisfactory rehabilitation within Himachal. News of committee meetings and legal cases still appear from time to time even though over five decades have passed since the people were displaced. Ideally satisfactory rehabilitation should have been completed in about five years.
What is even more surprising is that as per news appearing from time to time, even the satisfactory rehabilitation of the people displaced by the most publicized Bhakra Dam project has not been completed yet, even though this displacement took place a few years before the Pong dam displacement. Elsewhere in the Hirakund dam project in Odisha, the land acquisition had started even earlier and yet there are still complaints of the rehabilitation being very unsatisfactory.
Hence there is a strong need for a well-coordinated nationwide effort to complete the delayed and inadequate rehabilitation efforts of all dam projects. In the case of longest pending cases like Pong , Bhakra and Hirakund the need for speeding up the long delayed justice to evictees is all the more acute.
—
The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include 'Man Over Machine' and 'India’s Quest for Sustainable Farming and Healthy Food'

Comments

Dalit woman student’s death sparks allegations of institutional neglect in Himachal college

By A Representative A Dalit rights organisation has alleged severe caste- and gender-based institutional violence leading to the death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman student at Government Degree College, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, and has demanded arrests, resignations, and an independent inquiry into the case.

Domestic vote-bank politics 'behind official solidarity' with Bangladeshi Hindus

By Sandeep Pandey, Faisal Khan The Indian government has registered a protest with Bangladesh over the mob lynching of two Hindus—Deepu Chandra Das in Mymensingh and Amrit Mandal in Rajbari. In its communication, the government cited a report by the Association of Hindus, Buddhists and Christian Unity Council, which claims that more than 2,900 incidents of killings, arson, and land encroachments targeting minorities have taken place since the interim government assumed power in Bangladesh.

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

NYT: RSS 'infiltrates' institutions, 'drives' religious divide under Modi's leadership

By Jag Jivan A comprehensive New York Times investigation published on December 26, 2025, chronicles the rise of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — characterized as a far-right Hindu nationalist organization — from a shadowy group founded in 1925 to the world's largest right-wing force, marking its centenary in 2025 with unprecedented influence and mainstream acceptance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi , who joined the RSS as a young boy and later became a full-time campaigner before being deputized to its political wing in the 1980s, delivered his strongest public tribute to the group in his August 2025 Independence Day address. Speaking from the Red Fort , he called the RSS a "giant river" with dozens of streams touching every aspect of Indian life, praising its "service, dedication, organization, and unmatched discipline." The report describes how the RSS has deeply infiltrated India's institutions — government, courts, police, media, and academia — ...

From protest to proof: Why civil society must rethink environmental resistance

By Shankar Sharma* As concerned environmentalists and informed citizens, many of us share deep unease about the way environmental governance in our country is being managed—or mismanaged. Our complaints range across sectors and regions, and most of them are legitimate. Yet a hard question confronts us: are complaints, by themselves, effective? Experience suggests they are not.

2025 was not just a bad year—it was a moral failure, it normalised crisis

By Atanu Roy* The clock has struck midnight. 2025 has passed, and 2026 has arrived. Firecrackers were already bursting in celebration. If this is merely a ritual, like Deepavali, there is little to comment on. Otherwise, I find 2025 to have been a dismal year, weighed down by relentless odds—perhaps the worst year I have personally witnessed.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Celebrating 125 yr old legacy of healthcare work of missionaries

Vilas Shende, director, Mure Memorial Hospital By Moin Qazi* Central India has been one of the most fertile belts for several unique experiments undertaken by missionaries in the field of education and healthcare. The result is a network of several well-known schools, colleges and hospitals that have woven themselves into the social landscape of the region. They have also become a byword for quality and affordable services delivered to all sections of the society. These institutions are characterised by committed and compassionate staff driven by the selfless pursuit of improving the well-being of society. This is the reason why the region has nursed and nurtured so many eminent people who occupy high positions in varied fields across the country as well as beyond. One of the fruits of this legacy is a more than century old iconic hospital that nestles in the heart of Nagpur city. Named as Mure Memorial Hospital after a British warrior who lost his life in a war while defending his cou...

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Search This Blog