MP CM finds fault with GOM report on rehabilitation

New Delhi, Apr 19 (UNI) Disagreeing with the findings of the Group of Ministers noting unsatisfactory rehabilitation work for Narmada oustees, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today assured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that his Government would closely monitor completion of the work by the due date at high level.

"I take this opportunity to assure you once again that proper rehabilitation work for the displaced persons under the Sardar Sarovar Project is the highest priority for the State Government and the progress of the work to ensure its completion by due dates will be assidously monitored at a very high level,"the Chief Minister said in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister.

Mr Chouhan said in the Review Committee meeting convened on April 15 by the Union Water Resources Minister, he was given a copy of the report of Group of Ministers(GoM) that visited a few sites in the future submergence areas of the project. The report was not discussed at the meeting.

Subsequently, the Chief Minister said, he came to know that the report was extensively used in a petition pending before the Supreme Court on April 7, 2006 to show that the rehabilitation work in Madhya Pradesh was not found satisfactory by the GoM.

"I am surprised and shocked to go through the report. Not only does the report not reflect the ground reality, it is full of inaccuracies and factual errors,"Mr Chouhan said, adding the contents of the report were neither shared with the state Government before finalisation nor was any attempt made to ascertain the position of the state Government on the conclusions arrived at.

The Chief Minister charged that the GoM visit to assess rehabilitation was "clearly allowed to be stagemanaged by the NBA activists,several of whom specially came from Delhi to ensure that the committee saw what they wanted the committee to see and heard what they wanted it to hear." He added that all these indicated that the visit lacked the objectivity that was expected from a GoM of the Government of India.

The Chief Minister urged the Prime Minister to ascertain the position and views of the state government on the findings of the committee as part of the examination of the GoM report by the PMO.

UNI YS RP KP2011