BHOPAL: It is officially being claimed here that farmers have been able to purchase more land than they originally owned in the submergence area by opting for the special rehabilitation package offered to the Sardar Sarovar project affected families.

The Vice Chairman Narmada Valley Development Authority, Uday Verma said on Wednesday that 10298 project affected families (PAF) were rehabilitated in a 13-year period, whereas 14123 PAFs have been rehabilitated in the State from September 2005 onwards.

He said that 3879 PAFs out of 4286 PAFs have opted for the special rehabilitation package, revised by the State Government recently to enable the PAFs to purchase land of their own choice. Of these 3879 families, 1614 have so far purchased agriculture land of their choice.

While these 1614 families have lost 1470.380 hectare land coming under submergence, they have been able to purchase3671.644 hactare land through financial assistance under the special rehabilitation package.

A statement issued here on behalf of the Commissioner Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) points out that 71 farmers of Thikri tahsil of Barwani district along with their 49 adult sons have purchased 252.911 hectare of agriculture land. These farmers had to give up only 41.528 hectare land in the submergence area.

The farmers were able to purchase new agriculture land as they received a compensation of Rs. 28.34 lakh besides Rs. 5.50 crore was offered to them as special rehabilitation package.

Every son in a family opting for the special relief package is also entitled for 2 hectare of land or money to compensate its cost.

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