The Himachal Pradesh government would file a contempt of court case against Rajasthan if it failed to allot plots to those evicted for the Pong Dam project, Revenue Minister Kaul Singh told the Assembly today.
Replying to a question of Congress MLA Ajay Mahajan, the minister said, "We will take up the issue again with the Rajasthan government, and a ministerial team will visit the state... I will personally pay a visit for identifying sites for settlements of those evicted for the dam."
"If the Rajasthan government fails to honour its commitment, we will file a contempt of court case in the Supreme Court," Singh said.
Mahajan, who represents the Nurpur assembly segment, said he had been repeatedly raising the issue of re-settlement those evicted as they had not got justice the 1996 Supreme Court verdict in their favour.
Giving details, Singh said a total of 90,702 persons had been displaced for the construction of Pong Dam, and 75,268 acres of land was acquired for the project.
In all, 16,532 eligible families were selected and 10,584 took possession of land. As many as 1,128 families had never applied for land in Rajasthan, while 126 cases were found ineligible for allotment.
"As on today, 2,320 requests for land allotment have been sent to Rajasthan, but not even a single allotment has been made since 2002," he said, adding dry and arid land were being allotted to them in the areas which lacked basic amenities.
Meanwhile, replying to a query by Congress member Ravi Thakur on implementation of the Forest Rights Act, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said 1,375 Forest Right Committees (FRC) had been formed in the state, with the maximum of 553 in Sirmaur district.
