Involuntary Displacement and Resettlement — Policy and ... - CEPA

In a majority of cases APs have been able to make their grievances heard butin some cases the AP felt intimidated and was constrained in negotiating.It is a very good concept. If it had not been there we would have had noplace to talk, antha asaranai. Here we could negotiate to increase it. It wasreally good when we compare to what happened in the Mahawali [project].There are some problems with some officers but not everyone.- Householder, male, age 27There were some people from the RDA and DS [in the LARC]. I couldn’ttake time to think and answer because I am alone in front of 5 or 6 people.mama thani miniha – It’s like a court of law.- Commercial property owner, male, age 75LARC decisions were accepted by the APs, with only about 4% rejecting thedecision and moving on to other mechanism such as litigation. Those whorejected the LARC decisions were those who felt strongly that a particularinjustice had occurred in the entitlement and valuation decisions, and werewilling and able to incur the additional cost, effort, time and risk of reductionof compensation involved in appeal and litigation. Similarly, some of thosewho accepted did not always feel it was a sufficient or just compensation,but were not willing or able to incur the additional cost of prolonging theprocess.One of the main weaknesses of LARC, which has serious consequences tothe quality of the outcome of participation and consultation, is in relation todocumentation and sharing of information with APs following the decisionstaken. All negotiations were carried out within the entitlement and valueframework set out in the RIP, about which the affected individual had limitedknowledge. No document was provided to the AP at the end of the meetingregarding agreements reached and decisions taken. Any AP who requestedthis had to be satisfied with a handwritten note with no authorisation. Whileboth the STDP regional office and the Divisional Secretariats had adocumentation system as well subject clerks dedicated to documentingdecisions and tracking the progress of payments, very little information wasshared with the affected person. On average, the official document providingthe final LARC decision was received by the affected household six monthsto one year after the final LARC meeting and the compensation paymentshad already been made. This has led to dissatisfaction and suspicion even among170