The Mandal dam continues to be as it is despite several assurances including that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of its becoming operational in 2022 January.
The PM had announced this in his January 5,2019 visit to Daltonganj where the PM had said that his government is committed to start it and this will start in three years from now (2019).
The Mandal dam remains as a piece of neglect as ever said sources.
The Mandal dam creates ripples everytime any committee of the government of India arrives here and in September 2021 there had come a big team led by additional secretary Jal Shakti Ministry Debashree Mukherjee which had assured people here of resettlement cum rehabilitation packages in full swing here but there is no tangible development in this regard.
Pratap Tirkey and others who under the banner of Kutku Doob Chhetra Sangharsh Samiti have said the delay in getting the dam operational is from the side of the government as no one here is any opposed to it except that before any start of work on this dam issues of resettlement, rehabilitation, job etc must be done first and no single family so going to be displaced be left to suffer.
Tirkey said twice or thrice in a year one gets news of a committee or team arriving here which refreshes and intensifies our constant worries about our displacement only.
He said people want early resolution of this dam which is becoming a dam of sorrow for both the government and the poor, mostly for the poor.
Tirkey said for Doob Chhetra which involves more than half a dozen villages there is no developmental scheme of the government which affects the poor most.
Tirkey said let there be no one in any confusion that any tribal is opposing the dam. Rather we embarked upon finding suitability of the plot of land in Garhwa and Palamu districts for resettlement cum rehabilitation some months ago.