Page 5 - MGMG January-June 2019

? Many vested elements tried to subvert the project by instigating the innocent people against
NPCIL over transfer of land for the project.

? Notification in 2009 issued under the Old Act ended up in court litigations, counter claims and
objections coupled with outbursts of public agitations

? New Act (RFCTLARR Act 2013) came into force w.e.f 01-01-2014 and it mandated equal
compensation to assignees at par with private land owners. Even the occupiers on government
land were entitled to compensation

Challenges Faced

It was a major challenge which the District Administration to convince the Project affected families that
the intended social and environmental impacts would outweigh the benefits from the project; regaining
trust and faith on the machinery towards fair compensation by ushering in transparency and
accountability in LA and R&R.

To make inroads in to the villages by cutting down the middlemen, technological interventions and
effective implementation of the provisions of the progressive LARR Act were the only options
available. Stake holder consultations were done at every instance of LARR.

? Major breakthrough happened in the form of Social Impact Assessment (SIA), Economical
Impact Assessment (EIA), Gram Sabhas, Social Economical Survey (SES) and field studies.

? A Project Level Committee (PLC) drawing participants from the community, Women, SC/ST,
Youth, elected public representatives, etc. under the chairmanship of Minister and District
Collector with the Joint Collector, Project Administrator LARR as the convener

? Comprehensive Information & Communication Technology (ICT) tools were not developed
across the country to help the LA and R&R in such massive projects.

? There were no capacities in staff to handle the technical studies like Social Impact Assessment
(SIA), Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and ICT tools viz computers, cell phones, video
conference for arriving at compensation.

? Components like SIA, Land Alienation, Land acquisition, Compensation for trees and structures
on the project affected area, R&R package computation, R&R colony allotments etc. needed to
be computerized to disallow the discretion and delays.
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