Bypoll rekindles rehab hope for Pong oustees

Raghav Guleria

Dharamsala, July 6

The long-standing demands of Pong Dam oustees have once again taken centre stage in the upcoming byelections in the Dehra Assembly constituency. There is a considerable presence of Pong Dam oustees in Dehra, who were evicted from various villages around the Pong Lake. With the Chief Minister’s wife contesting the bypoll, it has raised hopes for the roughly 20,000 Pong Dam evictees out of the total 80,000 plus voters here.

Their political significance can be gauged from the fact that BJP nominee Hoshiyar Singh had got his head shaved off in support of their demands. The byelection has given a new hope and energy to these people dislocated fifty years ago and the self-help groups like the Pong Bandh Visthapit Samiti. They have already approached the Chief Minister to support their cause which has been hanging fire for many decades now.

1,188 land allotment cases to be expedited

The state government has reconstituted the Pong Rehabilitation Committee and soon a meeting will be held at Dharamsala. The government will also expedite 1,188 cases of land allotment ordered by the Supreme Court after getting details examined. —Jagat Singh Negi, Revenue Minister

Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi has also come forward and assured them that the government would take up their long-standing issues on priority by reaching out to their counterparts in Rajasthan where the land allotment is to take place.

Talking exclusively to The Tribune, the Revenue Minister said that he had asked his department to expedite the matter after examining all the available options. He raised concerns that the Rajasthan government was allotting land in far-off dry, border areas like Jaisalmer and not in Sri Ganganagar as decided earlier. He assured the oustees that a minister-level review meeting would be held soon.

Asked if the government would consider their demand for a one time settlement scheme allotting land from the state land pool, he said he was getting the entire matter examined on priority.