The State Government has issued the orders for disbursement of special financial package to the Omkareshwar Project Affected Families (PAFs) on Friday. The package was declared by the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on May 28, 2013 amongst thousands of PAFs gathered in the capital to express their gratitude to the CM for the sympathetic consideration on their demands.
The OSP special package would provide the financial assistance to the tune of Rs 212.87 cr. to about 6290 PAFs in addition to the financial assistance already disbursed under the rehabilitation policy for the project. It may be mentioned here that an amount of Rs. 138.04 cr. had been disbursed to the PAFs as compensation for their immovable properties and under other heads of rehabilitation grants. The package would also cover all PAFs already shifted.
The benefits under rehabilitation policy were given to the PAFs in the year 2007-2008. Majority of the PAFs has already been shifted from the reservoir area except about 2638 families. These families are still residing in the reservoir area even after a period of about 6 years. Now the state government has extended special package with the time line to vacate the reservoir area before July 15, 2013.
Thus allegation of not giving 6 month period to the PAFs for shifting is not correct. The fact is that the PAFs has welcomed the package declared by the Chief Minister and are eager to shift from the place before the monsoon. The State government has appealed to OSP Project Affected Families to take benefit of the package and be aware of misgivings and misleads spread by some anti development elements.