The Hindu Business Line : Stake in projects for people displaced

Benefits
Preference for employment to at least one person from each family.
Training and capacity building for suitable jobs and self-employment.
Scholarships for education of eligible persons from the affected families.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Oct 11 People displaced from their homes for developmental projects can look forward to getting various benefits including up to 20 per cent of their compensation package in the form of shares of the project with the Government on Thursday approving a national policy on Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R).

With prior approval of the Government, the proportion of share can be as high as 50 per cent of the rehabilitation grant and compensation amount. This package could ease resolution of disputes over land acquisition as witnessed in Tata’s projects in West Bengal and Orissa; Posco’s project in Orissa and other proposed special economic zones in various parts of the country.

New policy

The new policy, which replaces the National Policy on Resettlement and Rehabilitation for Project Affected Families, 2003, is aimed at striking a balance between need for land for developmental activities and protecting the interests of the land owners and others whose livelihood depends on the land involved. In other words, benefits under the new policy shall be available to all affected persons and families whose land, property or livelihood is adversely affected by land acquisition. These could be tenants, the landless, the agricultural and non-agricultural labourers, artisans, and others dependent on the land.

Settlement

The benefits under the new policy include: land-for-land; preference for employment in the project to at least one person from each family; training and capacity building for suitable jobs and self-employment; scholarships for education of eligible persons from the affected families; preference to groups or cooperatives of the affected persons in the allotment of contracts and other economic opportunities in or around the project site.

The policy also entails wage employment to the willing affected persons in the construction work in the project; housing benefits including houses to the landless affected families.

It provides for financial support to the affected families for construction of shops, working sheds, transportation costs, temporary and transitional accommodation, and comprehensive infrastructural facilities and amenities including education, health care, drinking water, roads, electricity, sanitation, religious activities, cattle grazing, and other community resources.

The benefits have been linked to the Consumer Price Index.

Life-time monthly pension to the vulnerable such as the disabled, destitute, orphans, widows, unmarried girls, abandoned women, or persons above 50 years of age is also built in the package. Special provision for the STs and SCs include preference in land-for-land for STs followed by the SCs; a tribal development plan, which will also include a programme for development for alternate fuel and non-timber forest produce resources.

R&R Committees would be formed at the district and project level with representatives from the affected families including women, voluntary organisations, panchayats and local elected representatives. There would be post-implementation social audits of the R&R schemes and plans.

For effective monitoring of the progress of implementation of R&R plans, provisions have been made for a national monitoring committee, a national monitoring cell, mandatory information sharing by the States and UTs with the national monitoring cell, and oversight committees in the Ministries/Departments concerned for each major project.

A national rehabilitation commission shall be set up by the Union Government, which will be duly empowered to exercise independent oversight over the rehabilitation and resettlement of the affected families.

According to the policy, land acquired for a public purpose cannot be transferred to any other purpose but a public purpose, and that too, only with prior approval of the Government. If land acquired for a public purpose remains un-utilised for the purpose for five years from the date of taking over the possession, it shall revert to the Government concerned. It states: when land acquired is transferred for a consideration, 80 per cent of any net unearned income accruing to the transferor, shall be proportionally shared with the persons from whom the lands were acquired, or their heirs.

One of the objectives of the policy is to minimise displacement of people and to promote non-displacing or least-displacing alternatives. It also recommends that only the minimum necessary area of land commensurate with the purpose of the project should be taken, and the use of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes should be kept to the minimum; multi-crop land should be avoided and irrigated land use should be kept to the minimum for such purposes. Projects may preferably be set up on wastelands or un-irrigated lands.

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More Stories on : Infrastructure | Policy | Rural Development

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