The Supreme Court on Monday directed Madhya Pradesh Government to award two hectare (five acre) to adult son of every family affected by the Sardar Sarovar Dam project on river Narmada.
Although this order was passed long ago by the Supreme Court on May 9, 2000 and clarified again on March 15, 2005, the State Government had refused to allot land to those adult sons, who had no land holdings in their names.
Clarifying its earlier orders, the bench of Justices Madan B lokur and UU lalit held that the State will implement the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) Award requiring all adult sons to be equal beneficiaries as the head of each affected family provided 25 per cent of their holding got submerged.
About 2,050 major sons were identified as beneficiaries of whom 1,300 had already received land. With this decision, the land will be available to remaining 750 as well.
The application by the State, filed by advocate CD Singh said, “The inclusion of major sons as eligible for allotment of land will pose a genuine hardship in physical and financial terms for the State.” Further, it had argued that in some cases, the father of the house had died following which the major son could not get double measure of land.
Advocate Sanjay Parikh who appeared for Narmada Bachao Andolan argued that the application was an afterthought as the State was duty bound to implement the Award. Moreover affected families in Maharashtra and Gujarat had already granted land to adult sons without any distinction.