“We are not sure what happened between September 12 (when the ATR was rejected) and March (when the NCA gave the go-ahead to raise the height),’’ says NBA’s Clifton.
The state insists it took up the disbursal of relief on a war footing after September. Revenue staff who didn’t coorperate earlier was made to fall in line after the CMO intervened. Earlier, the rehabilitation work was handled only by NVDA which didn’t have enough staff. Now the collectors of Dhar and Badwani have also been roped in.
A senior official attached to the NCA’s office in Indore, however, admits it’s difficult to visit each and every oustee at the sites. “We verify the ATR by randomly sampling between 15-20 per cent of the PAFs,’’ he says.
The discrepancy is evident on ground. At the Bhilkheda rehabilitation site, only 75 of the 235 housing plots are occupied; in Kupra, 61 of 261 plots and in Kasrawat, 98 of 804 plots. The government says the poor occupancy is because oustees are still living in their villages which are yet to be submerged.
‘‘We will see significant submergence only now,’’ says Kumar. Until then, the displaced have the option of tilling their original land or staying back even if they have accepted land or cash compensation.
Several landless labourers who were offered a special package moved to Gujarat. And though a few of them have returned, there has been more resettlement of MP oustees in Gujarat than in Madhya Pradesh.
THE STATUS
... contd.
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