Narmada panel report likely by mid-June

The PM had set up the Sardar Sarovar Project Relief and Rehabilitation Oversight Group following protests.

The three-member expert group set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to review the rehabilitation of families affected by the Sardar Sarovar Dam project would most likely submit its report by mid-June.

HT Image

"We will be able to complete validation of surveys in 8-10 days, the process for which will start around June 6. In addition, we will be taking 10 days to verify resettlement facts, which would start from June 1," former Comptroller and Auditor General VK Shunglu, who heads the group, said.

The Prime Minister had set up the Sardar Sarovar Project Relief and Rehabilitation Oversight Group following protests launched by the project-affected families led by Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan.

The team, which includes GK Chadha, former vice chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Jai Prakash Narayan, convener of NGO Loksatta, had been given three months to complete its study with as many as 7,000 complaints having been received from displaced families.

With plans underway to further increase the height of the dam to 139 metres, around 182 villages will be affected, while about five uninhabited villages will be totally submerged, said Shunglu.

The expert group revealed that of the 4,200 families who would be affected, only 400 families have accepted land compensation, while the remaining have opted for the special relief package.

"All this information is being verified. Of the 177 villages to be surveyed, we have so far covered 99 villages. Over the next few weeks we hope to complete 100 percent enumeration. We are deploying over 50 teams from the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) to do the verification," Narayan said.

Six more teams have been formed to check the civic amenities provided at the 86 rehabilitation sites in Madhya Pradesh.

Group members said that the Madhya Pradesh government had earmarked 8,000 acres for rehabilitation against a requirement of 21,000 acres of land.