In order to use tenanted land for setting up of projects for community or public purpose, the Goa government has introduced the Goa Land Use (Regulation) Bill, 2024 seeking amendment to Section 3 of Goa Land Use (Regulation) Act, 1991 so as to specify in the Right to Fair Compensation …
From a resource-rich area to a metaphor for poverty, the Balangir district of Orissa has covered a long distance. Plausibly, it is this journey that is driving its inhabitants to go away from their roots
It is more than two years since the terrible earthquake struck Gujarat. In this period the catastrophe-struck areas have witnessed rehabilitation work on an enormous scale. The Disaster Mitigation Institute, an Ahmedabad-based community action hub, evaluated the relief measures undertaken by the government and humanitarian agencies in the aftermath of …
The Narmada Control Authority (NCA) has given the go-ahead for raising the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam on Narmada river from 95 metres (m) to 100 m. Several thousand people are faced with the threat of submergence during the monsoon as a result of this decision. Moreover, it is …
The designation of Protected Areas (PAs) for biodiversity conservation had had negative implications for communities that derive their sustenance from such areas. Apart from restrictions on resource use, there have also been instances of people being displaced from areas that they had inhabited and that had been designated subsequently as …
after 48 days of struggle by the Adivasi-Dalit Samara Samithi, the Kerala government agreed to assign around two hectares of land in the estate areas of Sugandhagiri and Pookot to each tribal family on October 16, 2001. In other areas, 0.4-2 hectares of land was to be given, depending on …
Japan continues to face legal ripples created by its decision to fund the construction of a dam in Indonesia. A fresh wave of 4,600 Indonesians has now sued the Japanese government, alleging that the project has wrecked their livelihoods by forcing them to resettle. Last year, more than 3,800 Indonesians …
the Orissa government has finally begun disbursing compensation to likely oustees in the lower Suktel dam project. Nineteen families of Magurbeda village in Balangir district have been handed over a rehabilitation package of more than Rs 12.5 lakh. Ironically, the first lot of beneficiaries chosen by the state authorities will …
The Union government is keenly wooing private investment for its mega river linking project. In a recent meeting, chairperson of the project task force Suresh Prabhu tried to convince the business audience that the cost of rehabilitation would be inbuilt as in China's Three Gorges dam project. Prabhu also did …
"Abandon all hope, all ye who enter" This inscription that marks the gates of hell in Dante's Inferno could well be true for Jharia town in Jharkhand. For, the underground fires that have been raging in the coalfields here for over several decades are now beginning to engulf its thickly …
BATYA POREY ALORAN (STIRRINGS AFTER THE CYCLONE) . Sumit Chowdhury . Produced by Action Aid . 80 minutes Argues Kolkata-based documentary film maker Sumit Chowdhury, "destruction after any natural calamity records losses as much as it throws up the possibility of building afresh without going back to certain exploitative situations …
the underground fire has resurfaced as a raging row in Jharia, a small industrial town near Dhanbad in Jharkhand. What has stoked the controversy afresh is state chief minister (cm) Babulal Marandi's announcement that nearly 0.3 million people would be evacuated from the area. Local leaders, irrespective of their political …
In a significant decision, the Supreme Court (SC) directed the Assam forest department to pay Rs 1,000 per month against every hectare of encroached forestland in the state. "This amounts to Rs 28 crore per month as fine to the SC,' said state forest minister Pradyut Bordoloi. He pointed out …
During the last two decades of the previous century, the magnitude of forced population displacements caused by development programs was on the order of 10 million people each year, or some 200 million people globally during that period. Thus, by their frequency, size, ad the dire consequences, development-cased displacements have …
Legally, Paras Nath doesn’t exist. At the age of 52 he is still clueless about where he hails from. Nath was barely five years old when he began toiling hard to grow sal trees in the forest. “Even my parents were not able to trace their antecedents, but they too …
Can the country's top business groups utilise their corporate skills to manage national parks? They can, believe the Kotharis and Piramals. The two have jointly established the first corporate wildlife fund of India. The ambitious initiative envisages the setting up of a Wildlife Conservation Trust which will get patronage from …
As we begin, we must remind ourselves that of the 25 million persons displaced on account of development projects, less than 50 per cent have been rehabilitated. The rest have been
Debate on the right rehabilitation policy for those displaced by dams has been on for years. Folklore has it that the only fair and proper compensation lies in rehabilitation on the land. How did this theory develop? Multipurpose river valley projects, like Bhakra, Hirakud and the Damodar Valley Corporation were …
Driven by personal trauma, Kanak Mani Dixit, the editor of a Kathmandu-based magazine Himal, had launched a campaign against spinal injuries in April 2002. Then, on July 12, he undertook a 1,200-kilometre journey across three nations in a Volkswagen Beetle to raise funds for the cause. Dixit had met with …
