“LAL PAIAN”
In 1937 coastal districts of Orissa were completely washed by the devastating flood at the bank of the Mahanadi . To get rid of this frequent natural calamity, the then Governor Sir Huthurn Louis had inaugurated the multifarious project of the Hirakud Dam at an estimate of 75.50 crores on 15th March, 1947. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, laid the foundation of the project for second time on 12th of April 1948. This time the estimate was fixed at 100.02 crores.
Almost around 200 villages and thousands of people from undivided Sambalpur along with Sambalpur, Jharsuguda and Bargarh of present time were displaced by loosing their ancestral house, native land and grave yards etc. As per the report submitted by the chief engineer of the dam Dr.N.Khosla almost around 10,767 acres of wet land , 14,269 acres of Berna, 30,217 acres of Maal, 20,774 acres of dry land, 26,073 acres of cultivation land along with 21.290 acres of land worth of cultivation got submerged forever. In turn around 8 lakhs acres of land was expected to be irrigated and 50 thousand kilowatt electricity was supposed to be produced.
Just before the construction of the Hirakud dam , a special land-acquisition Act of Orissa (Act No.18) was passed protesting the land-acquisition act of that time. As a result, the affected people were forced to take compensation of rupees 10 to 15 per acre. In spite of strong protest, the dam was constructed. These affected people who had lost their land were given a little amount as if they were beggars. The people having no land like the washer men, priests, servitors and barbers etc. were simply drive away. Even today there are thousands of displaced people who are deprived of their compensation. The water in the reservoir of the Hirakud is not the plain water, but it is the red water ( Lal Paian ) collected / exploited from the blood of thousands of people.
Due to a lot revolution and satyagraha against the construction of the dam, the central government sent Mr.M.G.Rangaiya , the Rt.Chief Engineer of R & D Department, Mysore to investigate on the report of the Hirakud dam. He visited Sambalpur on 2nd Nov.1946 and gave three reports in 1947. He suggested Tikarpara as the best place of the largest dam of the world. But if the dam is constructed in Tikarpara, a lot of forest will be cut but people and cultivation land will be spared, The former chief engineer of Assam-Bengal Raiway, Mr.Kulbhusan Ray also gave his view against the dam construction.
But unfortunately, in spite of a lot of dissatisfaction of the people, the project of the dam was completed. This is a myth in the political history of Sambalpur that those who tried their best to bring freedom for the country, their role against the foreign Govt’s idea of the Hirakud Dam became futile.
When on one side the sun of freedom rises, at that time on the other side an ancient & fully developed area of the Sambalpur district with its forest, mines and more than 200 villages was submerged and became dependent forever.
Writer & Director
Subash Chandra Pradhan
