Centre forwards Ken-Betwa displacement complaints to Madhya Pradesh

Indian Opinion DeskGovernance51 minutes ago3 Views

Rahul Gandhi flags Ken-Betwa tribal displacement; complaints forwarded to MP govt

The Story in Brief

The Union Tribal Affairs Ministry told the Lok Sabha it had received several representations about displacement linked to the Ken-Betwa river-link project and forwarded them to the Madhya Pradesh government and district administrations. It said no complaint specifically alleged that compensation had failed to reach beneficiaries. The ministry said the rehabilitation plan, based on a 2016 proposal, covered 1,913 families, including 648 Scheduled Tribe families, while The Hindu reports the project involves more than 7,000 families.

The ministry said land acquisition, compensation and rehabilitation are state responsibilities, as is implementing the Forest Rights Act. It does not maintain centralised records of Gram Sabha meetings or related grievances. Protests in Chhatarpur have continued, including symbolic demonstrations and a hunger strike. Police removed activist Amit Bhatnagar and nearly 150 protesters on July 19, The Hindu reports.

The Indian Opinion

The lazy narrative is that forwarding complaints settles them. It does not. Nor is it fair to present the Centre as solely responsible when state authorities handle land acquisition and Forest Rights Act implementation. But the Centre leads the wider project and sits on monitoring committees, so it cannot treat oversight as someone else’s file. The sharpest issue is the conflicting scale of displacement: 1,913 families in the ministry’s cited plan versus over 7,000 reported by The Hindu. Authorities must publish a verified family-wise register, compensation status and Gram Sabha records.

Sources (2): timesofindia.indiatimes.com, thehindu.com

This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.

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