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NURPUR, SEPTEMBER 16
The Pong Dam Oustees’ Samiti (PDOS) convened a meeting at Jawali today which was presided over by its president Hans Raj Chowdhary. The samiti expressed its resentment over the failure of successive Central and state governments in solving decades-old issue of rehabilitation of oustees in Rajasthan.
The samiti alleged that the Government of India and Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh governments had been playing with the interests of thousands of oustees for the past around five decades.
Alleging that the present Jai Ram Thakur government was ineffective in addressing problems of the oustees, Chowdhary said the oustees had decided to fight for their interests with unity and would move the apex court for justice. He also warned of an agitation in which traffic jam, protest demonstration and stoppage of Pong Dam reservoir water flow would be resorted to.
Chowdhary said that the Rajasthan Government had failed to allot 1,188 murabbas (land allotments) despite the order of the apex court in 1996. He said the main demand of the oustees was rehabilitation on the pre-reserved land in Sriganganagar district in Rajasthan.
He said that around 20,000 families in Kangra district had been displaced after the construction of Pong Dam reservoir in lower Kangra district. Out of these, 16,000 had been indentified for allotment of murrabas in Sriganganagar where 2.50 lakh hectar cultivable land had been reserved for allotment.
“Only 9,000 families were allotted murrabas out of which a large number of allotments were cancelled on the pretext that the oustees were not self cultivating the allotted lands whereas the remaining oustees are being allotted barren land in Jaisalmer where basic life amenities are not available,” he lamented.
‘Will move top court’
The current BJP government under CM Jai Ram Thakur is ineffective in addressing problems of the oustees. So, we have decided to fight for our interests with unity. We will even move the Supreme Court for justice…. During the agitation, traffic will be blocked and Pong Dam reservoir water flow will be stopped. —Hans Raj Chowdhary, President, pong dam oustees’ samiti