Bhopal, May 24: The state government has made important amendments in Sardar Sarovar Project land for land / Special Rehabilitation Package (SRP) provisions in view to facilitate displaced families unwilling to own farm land anymore. The orders issued recently in this regard say that affected families whose more than 25% agriculture land was acquired due to submergence and who neither wish to take land offered by the state government nor they want to purchase agriculture land out of the SRP amount may get SRP amount in cash. Such families have to submit declaration under oath that they have had source of livelihood other than the agriculture. This declaration would be verified by the collector to issue no objection certificate. This certificate would enable the family to get SRP amount in one go.

The another amendment would facilitate those affected farmers whose more than 25% agriculture land was acquired and they wanted to purchase alternate land of their own choice out of SRP amount. The amendment provides exemption from compulsion of purchasing minimum 2 hectares of irrigated land. The oustee may purchase even less than 2 hectares of land provided total amount of SRP must be spent on it. This amendment is remarkable in the view that farmers may not be able to purchase mandatory 2 hectares of irrigated land out of the SRP amount due to cost factor.

These amendments would also be applicable to those families who have got first instalment of SRP and also in the cases of the families who produced fake documents of land purchase. It may be mentioned here that SSP affected families whose more than 25% agriculture land had been acquired due to submergence were entitled to take land offered by the state government or opt for special rehabilitation package in lieu of land. A total of 4453 families were entitled in this category. Out of these 4239 families had opted to take SRP.