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Odisha rehabilitation policy revision to increase one-time assistance next week
The revision is in line with the understanding that the CPI is a better indicator of inflation that affects an average household.
Odisha is considering aligning its Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy with the Consumer Price Index, which is likely to result in a significant increase to the current maximum limit of one-time cash assistance of ₹8.58 lakh to those displaced by the State’s developmental projects.
Next week, a committee of senior government officials headed by the development commissioner, would discuss the proposal to amend the 2006 policy, which calculates compensation using the Wholesale Price Index, as opposed to the CPI.
The one-time compensation is provided for self-relocation, house-building and employment and is revised every two years in accordance with the WPI. The last revision was done in October 2018 and the next is due this year after March.
The revision is in line with the understanding that the CPI is a better indicator of inflation that affects an average household.
“So there is a proposal to link the biennial revision to CPI,” said Abhay Nayak, additional secretary in revenue and disaster management department.
When the scheme started more than a decade ago, a displaced family used to get anything between ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakh depending upon the category of the displacement it fell into. A family that lost all its land used to get ₹5 lakh, while those losing agricultural land in part, but not homestead land, got ₹1 lakh in assistance.
After the last revision in October 2018, the minimum cash award has gone up to ₹1.71 lakh while the maximum is now ₹8.58 lakh. Once the indexation grant is linked to CPI, officials said the amount will go up considerably.
There is another proposal to create a mechanism to increase the monetary part of the rehabilitation and resettlement benefit.
That’s not all, the government is planning another amendment enabling payment of compensation to tribals and their communities that were given individual pattas under Forest Rights Act under FRA, which will be in line with the provision of land acquisition act, 2013, passed by the Centre, said an official.
FRA activist Manohar Chouhan, however, cautioned against any acquisition of FRA land and said it was a huge resource for the tribal community.
