Allot land to Pong oustees in Rajasthan: State to Centre

Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 21

Chief Secretary BK Agarwal today urged the Centre to allot land to the Pong Dam oustees in Sriganganagar district of Rajasthan as agreed by the two states earlier.

He held a meeting with UP Singh, Secretary, Water Resources, who is also the Chairman of the high-powered committee constituted by the Supreme Court for the settlement of oustees’ issue.

He requested him to hold the next meeting at the earliest so that the issues could be settled soon. He said land should be allotted to the oustees in phase one in Sriganganagar.

Agarwal also emphasised that the order of the Supreme Court should be complied with under which the allotment of 1,188 plots made by the Rajasthan Government was held illegal and cancelled. He added that this land should be vacated and allotted to the oustees immediately. He said all left-out oustees should be rehabilitated at the earliest.

UP Singh assured the Chief Secretary that the meeting would be called soon to discuss all these issues.

Agarwal also requested the Secretary for finalising the terms and conditions of the MoU for the construction of the Kishau dam in the upper Yamuna basin as soon as possible so that the MoU between the beneficiary states of UP, Uttarakhand, HP, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan could be signed.