HP to approach Centre seeking special relief for Bhakra oustees, landless people

The Himachal Pradesh government will approach the Centre seeking special relief for the provision of land for Bhakra displaced persons and landless individuals.

A decision in this regard was taken during the meeting of the District Planning, Development and 20-Point Programme Review Committee held in Bilaspur that was chaired by Rajesh Dharmani, minister for town and country planning, housing, technical education, vocational, and industrial training.

Rising above party lines, the proposal received unanimous support from BJP MLAs — Naina Devi MLA Randhir Sharma, Jhanduta MLA Jeet Ram Katwal, Bilaspur MLA Trilok Jamwal, and other government and non-government members who were present at the meeting.

“As the district lacks available government land and most of the land falls under forest areas, it was decided to seek special relief from the Centre to ensure land allocation for the landless population,” said Dharmani.

During the meeting the key issue discussed was the provision of land for Bhakra displaced persons as well as landless individuals. Many of the displaced persons who later settled in the New Bilaspur Township were declared encroachers due to anomalies in the settlement process.

In the meeting it was unanimously decided to seek special relief from the Government of India to ensure land allocation for the landless population. The Bhakra Dam is among the earliest river valley development schemes undertaken by India after Independence, though the project had been conceived long before Independence. The preliminary works commenced in 1946 while construction started in 1948.

Bhakra Dam, which was called “New Temple of Resurgent India” by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, has a reservoir known as Gobind Sagar that stores up to 9.34 billion cubic metres of water. In terms of storage of water, it is the third largest reservoir in India.

Even after 54 years people displaced by the Bhakra Dam, one of the earliest dams built in post-Independence India, continue to face rehabilitation and resettlement hurdles. The construction of 226-metre-high dam, had submerged 371 villages, including 256 from the former Bilaspur province owing to which about 10,000 acres of agricultural land and 20,000 acres of forest land was submerged and over 11,000 families were displaced from their homes.

The state government is also looking at providing land to landless people. As per authorities, there are about 519 individuals who were identified in the first phase as landless, of which efforts are being made to provide land to 40 such individuals. The district authority had received 1,400 applications for landless individuals seeking land.

“As a one-time settlement we will be writing to the Centre to provide relaxations to accommodate Bhakra oustees as well as landless individuals,” added Dharmani.