Govt constitutes R&R Committee for Rangit Stage-II

GANGTOK, 08 Dec: The State government has constituted a Resettlement & Rehabilitation Committee for the project-affected of the Rangit Hydro Electric Project Stage-II. This committee has been constituted as per directions contained in the Environment Clearance issued by the Ministry of Environment & Forest, Government of India in August, 2006.

As the dateline reveals, even thought constitution of the committee is welcome, it comes more than four years after such a direction was issued by the MoEF. This direction was issued, as is normally the case, when the project developer sought environment clearance from the Ministry and is a condition which is to be complied with mandatorily.
The Resettlement and Rehabilitation Committee for Rangit-II was constituted only last month.
As per the National Policy of Rehabilitation and Resettlement 2007, a monitoring committee for resettlement and rehabilitation is required to be constituted; the policy further elaborates that such a committee must include representatives of project affected persons for effective implementation of resettlement and rehabilitation plan.
For construction of the Rangit HEP Stage II, the project affected areas include Timbrong, Lingchom, Yangthang, Nambu and Darap in West Sikkim.
The R&R committee comprises a two-member Supervisory body and an 11-member Implementation Body. The members of this Supervisory Body are Secretary, Land Revenue as Commissioner and a representative of Sikkim Hydro Power Venture Limited, the project developer as Member.
The Implementation Body has DC [West] as Administrator and includes the area MLA Yuksom-Tashiding; Zilla Adhyaksha and Zilla Panchayat, Gyalshing, and all panchayat members of Darap, Nambu, Timbrong, Topung, Lingchom, Uangthang Gram Panchayat Units as members. Besides, it also includes members of local NGOs and other residents as well as members.
Furthermore, the entire Gyalshing subdivision has been declared as project affected zone and under this sub division Timbrong, Lingchom, Yangthang, Nambu and Darap villages have been declared as project affected villages.
The tenure of the R&R Committee is initially for two years from the date of its constitution.
Relief and rehabilitation measures include compensation to project affected for land acquisition, compulsory afforestation, any stabilizing measures which need to be undertaken such as jhora training, construction of retaining walls and also resettlement plans for those displaced families. Apart from this, the company is also expected to implement its obligations under the social corporate responsibility such as construction of schools, hospitals etc in the project affected area.