JUDGESPEAK
• A properly drafted relief and rehabilitation plan would improve living standards of displaced persons after displacement. For example residents of villages around Bhakra Nangal dam, Nagarjun Sagar dam, Tehri, Bhillai Steel Plant, Bokaro and Bala Iron and Steel Plant and numerous other developmental sites are better off than people living in villages in whose vicinity no development project came in. It is not fair that tribals and the people in undeveloped villages should continue in the same condition without ever enjoying the fruits of science and technology for better health and have a higher quality of lifestyle. Should they not be encouraged to seek greener pastures elsewhere, if they can have access to it, either through their efforts due to information exchange or due to outside compulsions.
• It should not be forgotten that poverty is regarded as one of the causes of degradation of the environment.
• If for any reason, any state governments involved lag behind in providing adequate relief and rehabilitation then the proper course, for a court to take, would be to direct the award's implementation and not stop the execution of the project.
• Perhaps the setting up of a thermal power plant may not displace as many families as a hydel project may but at the same time the pollution caused by the thermal power plant and the adverse effect on the neighbourhood could be far greater than the inconvenience caused in shifting and rehabilitating the oustees of a reservoir.