Himachal Pradesh: The government was planning to grant land rights to Pong Dam displaced persons under the Forest Rights Act, (FRA) 2006. According to sources, around 300 of the Pong Dam displaced persons were landless. These landless dam displaced persons were labourers and artisans who were working on the land of landowners before 1966 when land of 300 villages along the Beas river in Kangra district was acquired for the construction of the Pong Dam lake. The landowners received compensation for land acquisition, but the landless labourers and artisans got nothing. Sources said that the compensation norms had a provision that the Rajasthan government would provide these artisans and labourers with pucca houses and other amenities in the areas where the Pong Dam displaced are settled. However, at that time no artisan and labourer had applied to the Rajasthan government for pucca houses and other amenities.
Most of these labourers and artisans were living on village common land and did not have any land in their name. When their villages were submerged in the Pong Dam lake, these labourers moved upstream and settled on public land. However, the Himachal government converted all public land in the state into forest land in 1980. This made the landless Pong Dam displaced people encroachers on forest land. Till date they are struggling to get land rights even for the houses they have been living in for the last nearly 60 years. Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi, who recently chaired a meeting of the state-level committee of Pong Dam displaced people in Dharamsala, said when asked that the claims of the landless Pong Dam displaced people would be settled under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
He said that about 300 landless Pong Dam displaced people have applied to the Kangra district administration for land allotment. “We are also requesting other left-out landless Pong Dam displaced people to apply for land allotment under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, so that their claims can be considered and settled,” he said. Sources said that the Forest Rights Act, 2006 has a provision to grant land rights to those who settled on forest land before 2005 and were using it on a community basis. People settled on forest land before 2005 can apply to the village level committees constituted under the Forest Rights Act to get land rights. Hundreds of Pong Dam displaced people are now seeing a ray of hope in the provisions of the Forest Rights Act to get land rights.
