From the beginning, the Central Relief and Rehabilitation Department was firm on their idea of not settling the Bengali refugees only in Bengali speaking states. West Bengal, Assam and Tripura- three major refugee absorbent states started getting overpopulated from the early 1940s, after the speculation of Partition began. In 1949, a special enquiry was appointed by the Central Rehabilitation Department for finding out suitable areas for permanent settlement of refugees. Andamans was the first such settlement area in which about 199 families from Andul relief camp first arrived in March 1949. After the introduction of passport system and visa regulations (1952), representatives of the Governments of West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Assam and Tripura had a discussion with Sri A. P. Jain, the Minister for Rehabilitation, Government of India and they agrees to utilize some areas of Bihar and Orissa to relieve pressure on the Bengal government, by absorbing the new arrivals. But 23,000 refugees who were waiting in the transit camps in Bettiah, came back to West Bengal as ‘deserted refugees’ (they form another official category) around 1958. Among those settlement areas outside ‘Greater Bengal’ territory, Dandakaranya was the most ambitious project conceptualized by Central authorities’ for permanent resettlement of the East Bengali refugees. All State Rehabilitation Ministers gave their nods to the blueprint of the plan of rehabilitating the refugees outside Bengal. The AMPO Committee entrusted with the task of investigating the possibilities and the idea of making a ‘Second Bengal’ in the territories of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh started shaping up by the Government of India. The region finally selected was the Koraput and Kalahandi region from Orissa and Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh that involved a total area of 80,000 sq. miles: though it finally made up a well-defined area of 30,052 sq. miles. The DDA fixed the future pattern of the economy of Dandakaranya. Emphasis was given on agriculture, when they paid meticulous attention to the planning of village settlements too. After transferring a few batches from different camps of eastern and northeastern states (as fixed earlier), the Centre decided to send more refugees where rehabilitation was stopped. Although the Governments of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura were sending refugee families on a regular basis, the batches consisted of both categories; the refugees who had given their consent willfully, and others who wished not to settle there especially after the riot of 1964. A growing discontent about land and pattern of living was emerging, as the Bengali cultivators were accustomed to semi-aquatic and plain-land agriculture; they found it difficult to eke out a living in the rugged terrain and shallow soil of Dandakaranya. The Dandakaranya scheme was perceived as ‘a failed project’ from 1960. But, the theory highlights the contrast between ‘hardy Punjabi migrants’ and the ‘lazy Bengali migrants’ fuelled by the Central government. But, the project never planned properly, and the refugee families were trying hard for survival.