The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave its nod for the distribution of compensation among the oustees of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) on river Narmada in Madhya Pradesh. It ordered payment of ₹60 lakh to each of the families likely to be displaced.
The apex court, which passed a slew of directions to address the grievances of 681 such families, withdrew its proposal to set up a three-member committee of former Supreme Court judges to look into the compensation and rehabilitation issues.
A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar ordered compensation of ₹60 lakh per family for two hectares of land.
The families will have to give an undertaking that they will vacate the land within a month, failing which the authorities will have the right to forcibly evict them.
The bench, also comprising justices N.V. Ramana and D.Y. Chandrachud, said monetary compensation was considered as the proposed land compensation was not feasible due to non-availability of a land bank.
The bench observed if families that had taken the money had some dispute, they could raise the demand for ₹15 lakh, which would be given after deducting the money already paid to them.
Order confined to M.P.
The apex court asked the Gujarat government to give the money to Madhya Pradesh for further distribution through the grievance redressal authority headed by a retired High Court judge. The order was confined to Madhya Pradesh, as the highest number of oustees were from that State. As far as Maharashtra and Gujarat were concerned, the apex court said relief and rehabilitation work had to be completed within three months.