Long before land acquisition became a source of collective outrage and rehabilitation became a dirty word, the construction of Pong dam in Himchal Pradesh had displaced several thousand people without a well-defined policy. Nearly 50 years later, these people continue to be unsettled, struggling to retain the lands they were allotted in neighbouring Rajasthan, or worse, still awaiting allotment.

“The Pong Dam Project —now known as Maharana Pratap Sarovar in Kangra district—was one of the most ill-conceived in terms of rehabilitation. There was no proper policy to decide the resettlement of the oustees,” says a senior government official in Himachal.

Gian Chand knows it all too well. A resident of Galua village in Kangra, he holds out his injured leg as proof of years of ignominy. He was attacked by land grabbers while trying to save his patch in Sriganganagar village in Rajasthan, where he was allotted land in place of the one he lost in Nagrota Surian. “We have cultivated the land for years, but now that it’s developed, land grabbers have started eyeing it. They tried to sell it off fraudulently, and when I resisted, they attacked me and my family,” he says. “I can’t return because the land mafia will not let us stay, but the administration is indifferent to our plight.”

Chand is not alone. Over the years, several people have died or have been injured trying to defend their lands. In 1973, one Garib Dass died while trying to save his land from mafia. Two persons were disabled in July 1982 in the same area. A year later, land belonging to nearly 200 families was forcibly acquired by an armed gang. Though it was reacquired later, the accused were not punished. In March 1985, nearly 40 families faced hostility as their land was grabbed. Kehar Singh, another allotee, was beaten to death in 1995.

... contd.