Skip to main content

Apex court to Gujarat govt: Pay Rs 60 lakh compensation to 581 Narmada dam oustee families of Madhya Pradesh

 
In a major victory for Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar, who has led a relentless fight for about three decades for the Sardar Sarovar project affected families (PAFs), the Supreme Court has asked the Gujarat government to pay a whopping Rs 60 lakh compensation to Madhya Pradesh’s 581 PAFs each.
The amount, the Supreme Court has ruled, should be handed over to the oustees by July 31, 2017, and should be given to those who were offered a meagre Rs 5.58 lakh compensation by the Madhya Pradesh government as Special Rehabilitation Package (SRP), but failed to buy up 2 hectares (ha) of land they are entitled to.
The Rs 60 lakh cash would also be available to those who have not taken any cash from SRP or have taken 50% of SRP, i.e. Rs 2.79 lakh, and have not received land, which is their entitlement, said the apex court ruled.
The ruling by the Supreme Court bench consisting of Chief Justice Kehar, Justice Chandrachud and Justice Ramanna further said that there are another 4,216 PAFs, who had accepted SRP, but got duped in the fake registry scam while getting land compensation. The bench ruled, they should be given Rs 15 lakh each oustee family.
Medha Patkar
The fake registry scam was unearthed by the Justice Jha Commission, appointed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2008 following complaints of large-scale corruption in providing land to PAFs.
Insisting that the whole process should be completed within two months’ time, the apex court directed the governments of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to (R&R) sites in Madhya Pradesh, which the Justice Jha commission had investigated.
Those who receive cash of Rs 60 lakh would have to leave the land which is likely to go into submergence because of the Narmada dam July 31, 2017, the ruling said, even as directing the Grievance Redressal Authorities (GRAs) of the two states to redress all the oustees’ grievance related to resettlement sites and provide amenities.
The ruling is being interpreted as a clear admission that the rehabilitation of the Sardar Sarovar dam oustees is far from complete. Celebrating the victory, the NBA said, “The judgment is a victory for those who didn’t accept the meagre amount as ‘package’ and those who got cheated by corrupt officials and agents. NBA will continue peaceful struggle for others’ rights.”
As the main petitioner, the NBA stated, the judgment would help redress those farmer-adivasis and others who didn’t accept the meagre cash of 5.58 lakh for 2 hectares of land they were offered, adding, “Hundreds, who took only half of the cash package (SRP) since 2005, but demanded land and have not taken second installment, would also benefit.”
NBA insisted, with this judgment, the Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat governments “will have to allocate hundreds of crores of rupees since they have not allocated cultivable, irrigable land to the oustees in Madhya Pradesh.”
However, the NBA said, the issues of the landless, fishworkers and shopkeepers remains to be addressed, insisting, now pressure would now have to built up for them.

Comments

TRENDING

Punishing senior citizens? Flipkart, Shopsy stop Cash on Delivery in Ahmedabad!

The other day, someone close to me attempted to order some goodies on Flipkart and its subsidiary Shopsy. After preparing a long list of items, this person, as usual, opted for the Cash on Delivery (popularly known as COD) option, as this senior citizen isn't very familiar with online prepaid payment methods like UPI, credit or debit cards, or online bank transfers through websites. In fact, she is hesitant to make online payments, fearing, "I may make a mistake," she explained, adding, "I read a lot about online frauds, so I always choose COD as it's safe. I have no knowledge of how to prepay online."

Gujarat slips in India Justice Report 2025: From model state to mid-table performer

Overall ranking in IJR reports The latest India Justice Report (IJR), prepared by legal experts with the backing of several civil society organisations and aimed at ranking the capacity of states to deliver justice, has found Gujarat—considered by India's rulers as a model state for others to follow—slipping to the 11th position from fourth in 2022.

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

Of lingering shadow of Haren Pandya's murder during Modi's Gujarat days

Sunita Williams’ return to Earth has, ironically, reopened an old wound: the mysterious murder of her first cousin, the popular BJP leader Haren Pandya, in 2003. Initially a supporter of Narendra Modi, Haren turned against him, not sparing any opportunity to do things that would embarrass Modi. Social media and some online news portals, including The Wire , are abuzz with how Modi’s recent invitation to Sunita to visit India comes against the backdrop of how he, as Gujarat’s chief minister, didn’t care to offer any official protocol support during her 2007 visit to Gujarat.  

Area set aside in Ahmedabad for PM's affordable housing scheme 'has gone to big builders'

Following my article on affordable housing in Counterview, which quoted a top real estate consultant, I was informed that affordable housing—a scheme introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi—has deviated from its original intent. A former senior bureaucrat, whom I used to meet during my Sachivalaya days, told me that an entire area in Ahmedabad, designated for the scheme, has been used to construct costly houses instead. 

Just 5% Gujarat Dalit households 'recognise' social reformers who inspired Ambedkar

An interesting survey conducted across 22 districts and 32 villages in Gujarat sheds light on the representation of key social reformers in Dalit households. It suggests that while Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's photo was displayed in a majority of homes, images of Lord Buddha and the 19th-century reformist couple, Savitribai Phule and Jyotiba Phule, were not as commonly represented.

Not just Haren Pandya, even Dhirubhai Shah, youngest assembly speaker, wanted to be Gujarat CM

Dhirubhai Shah with Keshubhai Patel  When Keshubhai Patel was sought to be replaced by the BJP high command in 2001, everyone knows that Narendra Modi became the final choice. However, someone who was part of the top circles those days now tells me something I had no knowledge of—that the choice was between Modi and a Kutch MLA, Dhirubhai Shah, who served as the 16th Speaker from March 1998 to December 2002 during the 10th Assembly, the youngest to take the office.

Whither PMAY? Affordable housing in decline as Indian real estate shifts focus to premium segments

A leading property consultant that seeks to provide comprehensive real estate services to developers, corporates, financial institutions, and the government has reported that, while housing prices have risen between 10–34% across India's top seven cities over the past year, the once-robust supply of affordable housing has "tottered and dwindled."

How AI mistook Chhattisgarh truce move as religious leaders' appeal for Israel-Palestine peace!

Today, I realized why one shouldn't fully depend on AI, which can, at times, be extremely misleading. What happened was, I uploaded a PDF on one of the AI apps that claims to be the best among those publicly available. The PDF had been emailed to me by Kavita Shrivastava, a senior activist associated with the People's Union for Civil Liberties and the National Alliance of People's Movements, both well-known human rights organizations.