MUMBAI, Aug 20: The State Planning Commission (SPC) has proposed extensive measures to address the problems of relocation of Project Affected Persons (PAPs), going as far as to suggest that PAPs should include people who have been displaced by ``any project'' in the State, and not just the irrigation projects, which today limit the Maharashtra Project Affected Persons Rehabilitation Act, 1976.The proposals submitted to the State Government last month, are under consideration of the Cabinet and are expected to be incorporated in a bill to amend the Rehabilitation Act. The State Government is reported to be keen on placing the amendment bill in the forthcoming Winter Session in Nagpur.It is estimated that about one lakh families in the interiors of State are at present affected due to the numerous irrigation projects, large and small and in various stages of completion.The SPC has built its suggestions around the basic premise of ``least displacement'' whereby a project should be sanctioned in an area which will cause minimal families being displaced. Once displaced, the SPC suggests, care should be taken to see that the same families are not affected by another project coming up in the place they have been relocated. It has also been recommended that an affected family should be paid the cost of house in real terms and not on depreciated terms that is the norm today. A compensation of Rs 400 per head, per month should be paid to each family ``till the family is resettled,''.Persons who have also been displaced of their fertile land, should be given at least 375 hectares and a maximum of 500 sq metres and those affected by irrigation schemes should be given at least one hectare of land within another irrigation scheme to facilitate farming, the Commission feels.The panel has also suggested that two persons among the displaced should be members of the local Relocation and Rehabilitation Committee. Lastly, the SPC has concluded that employment schemes be introduced for the displaced, and those who cannot be accommodated be trained in self employment schemes.
