The Supreme Court, earlier this week, ordered a compensation of ₹60 lakh each to 681 families with two hectares of land in Madhya Pradesh. The court said that the payments are in keeping with the Land Acquisition (Resettlement and Rehabilitation) Act which entitles the landholder to four times the market value as compensation. The families concerned are supposed to get their due amount by July this year and vacate the place.
The order, however, goes against the promise of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam to provide land for land. Cash compensation is a step backward. It now turns out that Gujarat, the beneficiary State, has been unable to provide land for the oustees, most of whom are from Madhya Pradesh. The number of oustees is estimated to be in the region of 45,000 families, mainly in Madhya Pradesh. It is also not clear to what extent such large numbers have been given cash or land, even as the dam is all but complete, with only an 80-metre gate required to be built. This has raised the height of the dam to about 136 metres, necessitating further displacement. The court should have satisfied itself as to the facts on the ground (the number affected and the status of rehabilitation) before issuing this order. It is bad enough that pleas to keep the height of the dam as low as possible were not entertained. The present step could lead to chaos and corruption, in the absence of information.
The Sardar Sarovar project is too huge to be viably implemented. In a smaller project, it might have been possible to settle oustees in the command area — get the beneficiaries to part with the land, as has been achieved in the case of the Krishna valley development project in Maharashtra. A mess and a tragedy is once again about to unfold in the Narmada valley.
Senior Deputy Editor