The key features of Orissa’s updated R&R policy, which had inputs from UNIDO and DFID, include much larger cash compensation (far more than the pre-notification market prices), job guarantees along with skills training and even alternate land. Of course, the crux of the issue is not just good policy, but proper implementation. This is where the difference is already perceptible. Some of the investors in Orissa, both domestic and foreign companies, have already started shouldering R&R responsibilities as required and monitored by the state. What is touching a chord with the public is that, this time around, it is happening long before construction has started for their plants.

Of course, none of this will make any difference to some activists. But it should matter to the rest of us.
The writer is a Biju Janata Dal MP