Families hit by Renuka dam project start getting I-cards
Sixteen years after being declared a national project, the families affected by the construction of the Rs 6,947-crore multi-purpose Renukaji Dam in Sirmaur district are awaiting appropriate compensation and resettlement. The dam will supply water to Delhi and other neighbouring states.
A ceremony to grant identity cards to the main project affected families (MPAF) began at Dadahu today where the Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Vinay Kumar distributed identity cards to some displaced families of three panchayats while others collected it from the officials after queuing there for hours.
The ceremony organised on the premises of Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited, which is executing the project, has left the affected people disappointed as they were not given any information on how the relief and rehabilitation (R&R) process would begin.
Yogindra Kapil, who heads the Renuka Dam Sangarsh Samiti, lamented that instead of granting them the MPAF cards in their village, the affected people were asked to come to Dadahu after travelling for hours from far-flung villages in Sangrah, Gawahi and Baunal-Kakog panchayats. He said they faced an uncertain future as they have no information on how the R&R plan would be implemented 17 years after the work to acquire the land had begun.
He rued that with the stage II environmental clearance yet to be obtained the project work had been inordinately delayed. The project officials did state that tenders for tunnelling would soon be called, he informed.
The affected villagers were also demanding proper demarcation of the land identified for rehabilitation in their presence along with its videography as a sizable chunk of the land had eroded in the monsoon and it was not fit for habitation. This demand has not been accepted which was further leading to discontent in the affected people.
Identity cards were distributed to about 340 displaced families of three panchayats of Sangrah, Gawahi and Baunal-Kakog in the first phase. The main project affected families will get the benefit of the Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) Plan.
As many as 1,362 families have been notified as main project affected families under the first phase. Out of the 2,400 affected families from 37 villages of 20 panchayats which fall under the Renuka Dam Project, 1,362 affected families have been notified and the process of notifying the remaining families is underway Apart from this, 95 families have been notified as homeless and the remaining process was underway.
Notably, 1,508 hectares of land would be submerged in the Rs 6,947-crore project, which envisages the construction of a 148-m high rock-filled dam on the Giri river at Dadahu in Sirmaur district and a powerhouse. A 24-km tunnel would be constructed for the project.
