land acquisition/sez & displacement – 2011 - Indian Social Institute

Supreme Court would be taken only after I have had a detailed discussion with my farmer clients," hesaid. (New Kerala 21/10/11)Displaced youth yet to get promised jobs (4)MANGALORE: Four months after they were promised of appointment letters by Nalim Kumar Kateel, MP,and district in-charge Minister J. Krishna Palemar, 1,063 families displaced by the Mangalore SpecialEconomic Zone are nowhere closer to getting jobs. In particular, Mr. Palemar, on July 13, promised jobsto the project displaced families and a monthly stipend of Rs. 10,000 till they began work. While 1,664families have been displaced by MSEZ, 601 opted for a one-time cash payment in lieu of a job. The rest,however, registered one nominee each with the Deputy Commissioner for jobs to be provided by MSEZ.As many as 392 families are pursuing studies on their own, and 411 nominees were given training byMSEZ at the Karnataka Polytechnic for a specially designed course . During the KPT course and after,the students have been agitating for jobs and had stopped construction of Phase III of MangaloreRefinery and Petrochemical for several days. Mr. Palemar and Mr. Kumar had promised the students thatall project displaced families empanelled with the Deputy Commissioner for jobs would be grantedappointment letters. Four months later, the situation has not changed for them. Mr. Palemar told theKarnataka Development Programmes review meeting on Saturday that the promise would be fulfilled inthree days. (The Hindu 23/10/11)Polavaram: Raghavulu slams State (4)KHAMMAM, October 27, 2011: CPI (M) State secretary B.V. Raghavulu on Tuesday alleged that theState government proceeded with the tender process of Polavaram project without seriously studying thealternative plans proposed by the technical experts to reduce submergence and protect large tracts oftribal and forest lands from flooding. Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Mr Raghavuludeplored that the government did not even bother to give a serious thought to the alternative proposalsput forth by the CPI (M) to reduce flooding of tribal lands. The alternative plan encompassing viabletechnically feasible suggestions like reducing the height of the dam of Polavaram project and constructionof tunnels and balancing reservoirs to minimise displacement besides saving money and time, he said,adding the Supreme Court had earlier advised the government to study the alternative plan. MrRaghavulu said if the project was allowed to be constructed as per the original design, it would not onlycause extensive submergence of the tribal lands but also prove counterproductive in terms of hugeexpenditure involved in it. Although the Central government came up with a draft Land Acquisition,Rehabilitation, and Resettlement Bill, the State government chose to award Polavaram projectconstruction works without completing the rehabilitation process for rendering justice to over two lakhtribal people bound to be displaced by the project, he criticised. He demanded that the governmentshould examine the alternative plan and redesign the project accordingly. On the plight of the farmers, hereiterated his demand for declaration of drought-hit mandals and sanction of compensation forthwith. Thegovernment should waive the crop loans of all the distressed farmers to help them overcome the presentcrisis, he demanded. CPI (M) central committee member T Veerabhadram, district secretary P.Sudarshan Rao, and executive committee member N Nageswara Rao were among those present. (TheHindu 27/10/11)Tata Motors challenges Singur order (4)Kolkata, October 29, 2011: Tata Motors on Saturday challenged the order of the single judge of theCalcutta high court, which had upheld the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, bywhich West Bengal government vested the land leased to the company at Singur, before a division benchof the court. The Tata Motors has appealed against the order of justice IP Mukerji which was passed onSeptember 28 and gave a copy of the petition to government pleader Ashok Kumar Banerjee. Thepetition is likely to be moved before a division bench of the high court after it reopens on October 31. Thehigh court has held the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act 2011 to be constitutional. Thecourt had, however, ordered on September 28 an unconditional stay of the judgement till November twoto allow any aggrieved party to file an appeal, if it so desired. Tata Motors, which was to set up its Nanocar plant at Singur, had moved to Sanand in Gujarat in 2008 citing a law and order problem. (TheHindustan Times 29/10/11)Tatas seek two Singur order (4)