The Hindu : National : Shunglu report to be filed in apex court today

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Thursday, Jul 06, 2006

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National

Shunglu report to be filed in apex court today

Gargi Parsai

Report supports cash compensation

NEW DELHI: Even while acknowledging deficiencies in the rehabilitation and resettlement of the Narmada dam displaced families in Madhya Pradesh, the V.K. Shunglu Oversight Group has suggested that the State Government seek within two months approval of the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Sub-Group for resettlement of the project affected families (PAFs) up to the full height of the dam at 138 metres. This is clearly out of their terms of reference and meant to influence official decision-making and the Supreme Court.

The report would be filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday as part of the hearing on an application filed by Narmada dam displaced families seeking rehabilitation and resettlement as per the Narmada award and Supreme Court decisions. The report was discussed in the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday.

The report, submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday, is totally dedicated towards supporting cash compensation for rehabilitation and resettlement of the PAFs. It has taken as "rehabilitated" a displaced person who has received even one instalment of cash compensation, even though the person may not have acquired alternative land or built a house on the plot allocated to him.

Contradictory

The report says that the reason for PAFs "accepting" cash compensation was that government land did not match their requirement.

This is contradictory to the charge that no land had been offered and that the displaced families were being forced to accept cash as otherwise they would get neither.

It has dismissed complaints made to the Group or the National Sample Survey Organisation teams by aggrieved persons as `unsubstantiated' and directed them to the Grievance Redress Agency. The number of complaints pending before the GRA were reduced to 4,000 from 10,000 mentioned initially. However, the Group has not gone into the merits of the complaints and advised the Madhya Pradesh government to "expedite" the rehabilitation of these persons.

Quoting the Action Taken Report of the State, the report says that 24,421 families were affected at 121.92 metres dam height. Of this, 5,456 families were rehabilitated in Gujarat. At the same time, the Group has asked the State to take steps to rehabilitate the adult sons of families with land for eligible families.

According to informed sources the report suggests that the rehabilitation sites presented a mixed picture with some being good and others poor or average. At the same time, the report says that at several sites there was no provision for water supply, electricity, education, health, schools, etc., and wherever these amenities existed, they needed to be upgraded and serviced. A major issue was relocation of displaced people who did not leave their old farmlands till they were inundated. The report misses out that people did not move because there was no land and facilities at rehabilitation sites as per the award. The report suggests that instead of the Narmada Valley Development Agency (some of whose officers are facing charges of corruption) performing all functions, the District Administration should be directly involved.

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