Relief for project-affected people on the anvil

KATHMANDU, APR 05 -

The government has prepared a draft of a Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy as increasing instances of people being affected by development projects has turned into a major problem.

The National Planning Commission (NPC), which prepared the draft jointly with other government agencies, said the country would have the first policy for resettlement and rehabilitation of project-affected people by the middle of the next fiscal year.

Though it was originally envisaged that the policy would be for people displaced by hydropower projects, it has now been decided that it will apply to any development or public infrastructure project.

As per the draft which was recently sent to different ministries for their comments, there should be facilities including education, health care, drinking water, roads, electricity, sanitation, religious activities and other community resources in the resettlement area where the displaced people will be shifted.

The draft states that the benefits to be offered under the new policy to the affected families include land for land, preference for employment in the project, training and capacity building for taking up suitable jobs and self-employment and other wage employment, scholarships for education and housing benefits including houses to landless affected families in both rural and urban areas, among others.

It terms of partially affected people, the draft also states that compensation should be paid for losses resulting from damage to crops and deforestation and from the destruction of buildings or walls or other physical damage while constructing the project.

Similarly, the draft also intends to offer additional compensation to seriously affected people in terms of incentive or facility packages. “The model for such incentives will be fixed later based on the study of particular cases,” said NPC joint secretary Gopi Mainali. The government plans to introduce the policy to prevent both the locals and projects from being affected by each other and to ensure smooth and early project development.

Mainali, one of the members of the committee that prepared the draft, said the first priority of the policy would be not to allow project construction in residential areas or construct the project without affecting locals. “However, if a situation occurs where the locals are affected, the policy aims at helping the affected people to be resettled, ensuring their former living conditions and livelihood options,” he said.

According to him, the draft aims to create a balance between the need for land and other resources for developmental activities and protecting the interests of the land owners and others affected.

The policy also envisions forming a Compensation Fixation Committee to recommend specific compensation packages in a particular project affected area. The committee to be led by the chief district officer (CDO) of the concerned district will have representatives from the District Development Committee (DDO), Village Development Committee (VDC), Survey Department and the Land Revenue Office (LRO) besides the chief of the particular project, among others.

“The benefits under the new policy will be available to all affected persons and families whose land, property or livelihood is affected by land acquisition or by involuntary displacement,” added Mainali.

The new policy will be applicable to all development projects, both public and private and others, irrespective of the number of people affected.

Government officials said that there was a growing need for such a policy as most of the big infrastructure projects have been victims of compensation demands claimed by the affected people that are hard to meet which not only have delayed project development but also affected the locals.

The committee had been asked to prepare a draft of the policy about six months ago, after the 26th meeting of the National Development Action Committee (NDAC) chaired by the then Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai decided to introduce the first policy with regard to rehabilitation and resettlement of project affected people.

“The draft has been sent to stakeholders like the Finance, Law, Energy, Industry, Urban Development, Land Reforms and Tourism and Aviation ministries for their comments,” said a member of the committee. According to him, his committee will submit the draft to the Cabinet after incorporating the inputs received from the stakeholders.

Source: The Kathmandu Post