Dumka, Feb. 8: Those displaced by the Masanjore Dam are smiling again, 50 years after they were ousted from their homes, thanks to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who has directed the chief secretary to look into their problems.

Ajoy Dutta ? a member of Manwadhikar Deshom Pargana, a 144-member body of people displaced because of the dam ? said they had sent a memorandum to the President, Prime Minister and the national human right commission seeking their ?immediate intervention? to solve the problems of the evicted.

In reply, he added, the Rashtrapati Bhavan had asked chief secretary to solve the problems of the thousands of villagers whose plots were acquired by the government to construct the Masanjore Dam. A copy of the letter was sent to the Manwadhikar Desom Pargana also.

In 1956, the dam was constructed over the Mayurakshi river in Masanjore, a popular tourist spot 39 km from Dumka.

Numerous residents in 144 moujas or revenue villages under four blocks ? Massaliya, Dumka, Jama and Raneshwar ? were in trouble soon after the dam was built in collaboration with the Canadian government.

Thousands had lost their native land and cultivating plots and hundreds of villages disappeared when the dam was completed and its reservoir became full. The displaced populace?s efforts to get adequate compensation were turned down by the administration.

Interestingly, the then Bihar government had promised adequate rehabilitation but had failed to roll it out. ?We received only Rs 625 from the rehabilitation office, which temporarily was set up in Suri, West Bengal, in 1960,? said Sadan Dutta of Massaliya block, whose 37 acres of cultivated land was acquired for the dam?s construction.

Earlier, villagers of Kumrabad had filed a case pleading for compensation. The Bihar government, the local administration of Suri and the engineer-in-chief of the irrigation department of West Bengal were accused, in the case, of causing the death of human lives and destruction of property.

But the case was dismissed in October 2004 after the complainants could not pay the court fees of Rs 1 lakh. ?56 families had appeared as complainants. We could not raise the money as we had lost every thing. Most of us were living hand-to-mouth,? said Uttam Kumar Mondal, another victim.

Their appeal to be exempted from paying the court fees was also rejected, he added.