The Madhya Pradesh High Court has asked the state Government to allot agricultural land to the oustees of Omkareshwar Dam on the Narmada, on ‘land for land’ basis.Several project-affected families have already accepted cash compensation for their land over the last four years. Omkareshwar is one of the large dams constructed in the Narmada valley by a joint venture of Narmada Hydroelectric Development Corporation (NHDC), a state Government undertaking, and National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), a Central Government undertaking.A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice A K Patnaik and Justice Ajit Singh, also held that even the adult son of the affected farmer be allotted a minimum of five acres of irrigated land. But to get the land, beneficiaries who have received compensation will have to first deposit 50 per cent of the compensation. The remainder will have to be returned in 20 installments. Those who did not receive any money, will be eligible for getting land without any rider. In either case, it will be a long drawn process. While the official number of Personal Ancestral Files (PAFs) is 5,814, the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), citing irregularities in the survey conducted by the Government, puts it at over 8,000. Some of the beneficiaries have already purchased land with the money they had received as compensation.The judgement came in response to a petition filed by the NBA in March last year, arguing that the Government was permitting filling the reservoir without proper rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) of the project-affected families.The NBA argued that the Government was citing lack of availability of land, but providing thousands of acres of land to Special Economic Zones and private industries.Advocate General R N Singh told The Indian Express that the court observed that the state Government brought no such material on record to show that efforts were made to allot land to the oustees. The Government had argued that most PAFs accepted compensation as they found the option better.In 2002, while modifying the R&R policy, the Government had stated that allotment of land would be made “as far as possible”. The Division Bench directed that all other grievances like non-inclusion of house, persons and denial of other grants, may be taken to the Grievance Redressal Authority (GRA) by March 31, 2008. The GRA will have to decide on these applications by June 14 and file a report to the High Court.Meanwhile, the court has asked the Government to pay Rs 10,000 to the NBA, the petitioner, as costs.
