Dandakaranya Development Authority

The Dandakaranya Development Authority is a government agency set up by the Government of India in 1958 to look after the Bengali refugees from East Pakistan by developing the lands and resources in Orissa and Chhattisgarh.

Dandakaranya is a project that was set up to rehouse homeless refugees from East Pakistan,^[1] who were leading a demoralized existence on doles in camps. The area coming under this scheme comprises nearly 30,000 square miles and offers possibilities for reclaiming over two lakh acres, at least 45,000 acres of which can be irrigated by two projects . The first hopes of a rapid resettlement of 20,000 East Bengal refugee families . The actual arrivals from the refugee camps, have been only 1,464 families.^[2]

Chairman of Dandakaranya Development Authority

Saibal Kumar Gupta (born 1902) was the Chairman of Dandakaranya Development Authority. After graduation from Calcutta University he joined the Indian civil service in 1923. He was a districts and session judge at the District Courts of India from 1931 to 1947, secretary of West Bengal government from 1947 to 1950, and was chairman of Kolkata Improvement Trust from 1950 to 1960. after his retirement he joined Dandakaranya Development Authority as chairman. In 1964 he caused controversy by claiming that "less than 10 per cent of the soil which the refugees had been given to farm was in fact arable".^[3]

Members of Dandakaranya Development Authority

• Anthony Leocadia Fletcher was the chief administrator from 1950 to 1960
• sahadeva sahoo was the chief administrator of Dandakaranya Rehabilitation Project^[4]

References