Comments
The Orissa Government is yet to file its response to NHRC on a socio-economic survey report on the Salandi river development project in the State, which is facing allegations of eviction and rights violation.
The National Human Rights Commission has now asked the government to submit the response by June 6.
The Commission, which considered the matter recently, said the Principal Secretary of State Department of Water Resources had informed it that 409 complaints from persons affected by the ‘Salandi Sanskar project' have been received from the Home Department.
On 291 complaints, enquiry and full verification have been done, but more time is needed to dispose off the rest.
“Therefore, two months time is granted to the Principal Secretary to file a report in the matter,” the NHRC said.
The NHRC also pointed out the state government's response on the socio-economic survey “has not been received” and granted it two more months the send the reply.
By an earlier order of January 18, the Commission had requested the government to see whether any other person is affected by the project.
“It is reported that for implementing Salandi Sanskar project, several persons have been evicted from their land and houses... the government is requested to see whether any other person is affected by this project... if it be so, whether any compensation has been awarded,” the rights panel had said in a communication to the Orissa Chief Secretary.
In February, the NHRC had allowed one of the main complainants, lawyer R.K. Tripathi, to furnish the details of the affected people to the government of Orissa.
The complainant claimed more than 10,000 families in Bhadrak district of Orissa are being affected by the project.
On January 18, the Commission's full bench comprising Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Mr B.C. Patel, Mr Satyabrata Pal and Mr P.C. Sharma heard the issue during its Orissa camp and came down heavily on the authorities over the denial of compensation to the people affected due to the project.
“The Commission asked the state government to take care of the affected families before displacing them,” the NHRC Secretary, Mr K.S. Mani, had then said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.