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Getting serious on rehabilitation

The Prime Minister's decision to constitute a three-member Sardar Sarovar Project Relief and Rehabilitation Oversight Group follows the Supreme Court's authorisation to him to act in the matter. The Oversight Group, consisting of V.K. Shunglu, retired Comptroller and Auditor General of India, G.K. Chadha, former Vice-Chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Jayaprakash Narayan, convenor of Loksatta, has been given a fairly ambitious target to meet within three months. It is supposed to ascertain how many families will be affected by the raised height of the dam on the basis of reports prepared by the Madhya Pradesh Government and estimate through sample checks whether project affected families have received the full rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) package, whether alternative land has been given to eligible oustees in "a fair and transparent manner," and whether those oustees not wanting the land have willingly accepted the M.P. Government's Special Rehabilitation Package. It has also been asked to determine by when all the rehabilitation, resettlement, and civic amenities will be in place, and to recommend a system so that those affected "by the increase of the height of the dam to 121.92 metres receive, within the next three months, the benefit of the Relief and Rehabilitation package..." The last point of reference suggests that the Government views raising the dam height as a fait accompli. It seems to be taking the position that even if R&R is not satisfactory, work on the dam will not be stopped.

In the long and troubled history of the construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam, the problem has never been the absence of data and assessments; rather it has been their credibility. While the Narmada Bachao Andolan has one set of figures, the Madhya Pradesh Government has another. Even if neither is entirely accurate, the numbers of people to be affected by submergence have been consistently underestimated at every stage by all the three States concerned — Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, and particularly the last. At this late stage, when the work on the dam continues and submergence is inevitable in the next three months, revisiting the question of numbers yet again is pointless especially because the problems of resettling thousands of families are already evident. Furthermore, by giving the Group the task of addressing the problems only in Madhya Pradesh, the Centre is letting Maharashtra off the hook. A government-commissioned report has shown that as many as 1,174 project-affected families in Maharashtra are to be resettled and this number could increase as the Grievance Redressal Authority has several thousand appeals pending before it. This report has also stated that the Maharashtra Government is ill prepared to deal with submergence at the raised height of the dam. The only reasonable course would be to stop work, address the already-known problems of rehabilitation seriously, and then resume construction.

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