Total Narmada Dam oustees 53,000, not 23,000, NBA tells Govt of India

By Our Representative
Narmada Valley Development and Rehabilitation Minister Surendrasinh Baghel's claim in a press communique that all the 83 rehabilitation sites, built in Madhya Pradesh to resettle Sardar Sarovar Narmada Dam oustees, would be given all the facilities till June 20 to make them liveable "is impossible to achieve", the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) has said in a statement.
Asserting that lack of facilities at rehabilitation sites is a violation of all court orders as also the resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) law, NBA said, theere was timeframe for providing facilities -- clearing of cases with the the grievance redressal authority by November 28, 2017, allocation of residential plots till December 31, 2018, ownership registration alongside provision of electricity, street lights and cremation grounds till March 31, 2018, and drinking water by April 31, 2018. Yet, till date things have not moved.
According to NBA, the displaced persons were to be compensated in full measure in cash, but even the list of those who are entitled to it is not complete. As many as 16,000 dam oustees have been disqualified from getting the facility because of "unscientific" calculation of the backwater levels of the areas going into submergence.
At 138.68 metres, said NBA, if calculated as once in 100 years submergence due to floods (which came in the 1970s), as many as 30,000 oustees remain to be resettled. The total number of the dam affected persons is not 23,000 but 53,000, as claimed. Meanwhile, 8,000 applications of displaced persons are pending before the authorities.

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