Resettlement Planning Document
Resettlement Plan for Almora–Bageshwar Road Section Document Stage: Draft for Consultation Project Number: 38255 August 2006
India: Uttaranchal State-Road Investment Program
Prepared by Public Works Department, Government of Uttaranchal.
The resettlement plan is a document of the borrower. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of ADB’s Board of Directors, Management, or staff, and may be preliminary in nature.
SHORT RESETTLEMENT PLAN
A. Project Description
1. The State Government of Uttaranchal (SGOU) has embarked on a 10 year road improvement program, the Uttaranchal State Roads Investment Program (USRIP), to support the State’s ‘Infrastructure Vision’. Under Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) multi tranche financing facility (MFF) for USRIP, there will be two major components I.e. improvement of existing road network around 10,800 km comprising of several projects and strengthening the infrastructure management capacity of Uttaranchal’s Public Works Department(PWD) which will be the executing agency for USRIP. The first component will focus on improving the condition of the existing road network by carrying out rehabilitation and reconstruction works that are mostly confined within the existing right-of-way (ROW).
2. Following the Strategic Option Study (SOS) and the Pre feasibility Study (PFS), PWD has identified and prioritized around 5,600 kilometer of roads for improvement. Out of the prioritized roads, pre-construction work on 573 kilometers of roads (comprising 23 roads) which will form Project 1 has been completed. The scope of Project 1 road improvement component includes strengthening and reconstruction of selected sections of State Highways (SH), Major District Roads (MDR) and Other District Roads (ODR). In general, the existing single lane carriageway (3.5m) will be retained with some standardization. Upgradation to intermediate (5m) and two lane carriageway (7m) may be necessary on technical / traffic / safety grounds in a relatively few cases.
3. Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) are prepared for all the road sections proposed to be financed in Project - 1. The Executing Agency (EA) will prepare and appraise the subsequent projects and will be reviewed by ADB.
4. This Short Resettlement Plan has been prepared based on detailed design for Almora - Bageshwar road (72.900 km) in Almora and Bageshwar districts. There will be no land acquisition required; hence there will be no legal title holders to be affected. However, there is one encroacher who will be losing his structure as well as source of livelihood.
B. Scope and Objectives of the SRP
5. The aim of this Short Resettlement Plan (SRP) is to mitigate all unavoidable negative social and resettlement specific impacts caused due to the up gradation of the road. The plan has been prepared on the basis of survey findings and consultation with various stakeholders in compliance with ADB’s policy on Involuntary Resettlement (1995, Indigenous Peoples (1999) and other social safeguard policies designed by the Bank to protect the rights of affected persons and communities. The issues identified and addressed in this SRP are:
• Type and extent of loss of land and non-land assets, loss of livelihood or income opportunities and collective losses such as common property resources and social infrastructure; • Impacts on Indigenous people, vulnerable groups specifically women; • Consultation with stakeholders and scope of peoples participation in the project; • Existing legal and administrative framework and formulation of project specific resettlement;
• Entitlement matrix with provisions for relocation assistance and restoration of businesses/income; • Estimation of cost for implementation of R&R activities; • Institutional framework for the implementation of plan including monitoring and evaluation mechanism.
C. Resettlement Impacts
6. The proposed work for this road section includes widening of existing single lane carriageway to intermediate lane and strengthening of existing intermediate lane. The required formation width is 5 meters. The road corridor passes through hilly terrain and there are seven villages falling on the road. As per the PWD records, the available Right of Way (RoW) is 15 meters.
7. Minimization of resettlement was achieved mainly by reducing the corridor of impact. Based on the availability of RoW and likely improvement strategy, it was agreed in consultation with PWD to reduce the corridor of impact to 5 meters. This helped in bringing down the resettlement impact considerably and in some locations by 100 per cent as presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Minimization of Resettlement Impact No. of affected Structures No. of Structures Location/ Village Before Mitigation After Mitigation saved Almora town 700 1 699 Kaparkhan 13 0 13 Bhituli 7 0 7 Basoli 95 0 95 Dotiyal gaon 23 0 23 Takula 62 0 62 Kafli gair 65 0 65 Katpuriya Chhina 12 0 12 Danu chhina 14 0 14 Bhattkola 32 0 32 Chani 12 0 12 Ghadi Khet 15 0 15 Hiragoni 22 0 22 Joshigaon 8 0 8 Nagar 8 0 8 Sari chouraha 7 0 7 Pouri dhar 7 0 7 Gariya gaon 13 0 13 Bilona 67 0 67 Bageshwar 240 0 240 Total 1422 1 1421
8. After minimization of the impacts by adopting suitable engineering option, only 1 structure will be affected. Type and use of the structure with number of household and APs as enumerated during the census survey are summarized in the Table 2.
Table 2: Types and Uses of Structures to be Affected Types of Structures No. of Structure No. of Households APs Residential cum Commercial Structures 1 1 4 Other Structures 0 0 0 Total 1 1 4 9. This private structure likely to be affected is encroached structure. The details of ownership by use of the structure are summarized in the Table 3.
Table 3: Ownership Status of Affected Structures Categories of Losses Encroachers Squatters Titleholders Total Residential cum commercial 1 0 0 1 Other structure 0 0 0 0 Total 1 0 0 1
The residential cum commercial structure which is being affected is suffering an impact of up to 10% only. The extent of loss of this structure is summarized in the Table 4.
Table 4: Extent of Impact of the Structures Categories of Losses Up to 10% 10 to 30% 30 to 50% 50 to 70% > 70% Residential cum 1 0 0 0 0 commercial Other Structures 0 0 0 0 0 Total 1 0 0 0 0
10. In the area of influence of this road, most of the structures are having permanent construction. The structure being affected by the improvement of this road is semi-permanent in nature. The type of construction is summarized in the Table 5.
Table 5: Type of Construction of the Affected Structures Types of Construction No. of Structure No. of Households Permanent 0 0 Semi-Permanent 1 1 Temporary 0 0 Total 1 1
11. People living along the road are of various socio-economic standards. The households living below poverty line (BPL), households belong to backward class of society like Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST); households headed by women and handicapped persons are categorized as vulnerable group. The number of household belongs such vulnerable group is presented in the Table 6.
Table 6: Vulnerable Households Being Affected Categories Vulnerable Households No. of Households Households Below Poverty Line (BPL) 1 Scheduled Caste (SC) Households 0 Scheduled Tribe (ST) Households 0 Women Headed Households (WHH) 0
Physically Handicapped Headed Households 0 (PHH) Total 1 D. Socio-Economic Profile of the APs 12. The affected household is having four members in total. The size of the affected household is presented in Table 7.
Table 7: Size of Affected Household Number of Family Members Number of Household < 5 1 > 5 and < 7 0 > 7 and <10 0 >10 and < 15 0 Total 1
13. In general the economy of the area is agrarian one. The affected household is depended on business as he is running a shop along the road. The source of income of the affected households is presented in Table 8.
Table 8: Main Source of Income by Affected Households Source of Income No of Households Agriculture 0 Service 0 Business 1 Labor 0 Total 1
14. The annual income of affected family is less then Rs. 20,000 which makes him a family below poverty line. The annual income pattern is given in Table 9.
Table 9: Annual Income Pattern Range of Income (Annual) Number of Households <20000 1 20000 – 50000 0 50000 – 75000 0 75000 – 100000 0 > 100000 0 Total 1
E. Relocation and Compensation
15. No relocation of households is envisaged in this road section as there is no total loss of any structures. The only structure being affected is losing only 10% of its total structure area. This is an encroached structure in the government land. This structure will be compensated and/or assisted as per the policy laid down for the project.
16. So far as the relocation need, AP has indicated relocation within own land. Thus none of the APs will be displaced. The affected family opted for cash compensation for partial loss of his structure.
17. The impact will not affect incomes and if compensation is paid, the AP can reconstruct their structures and all APs will remain where they are.
F. Issues Related with Indigenous People
18. In the state of Uttaranchal, the tribal (scheduled tribe) population constitutes only 3% of the total population. There is no any scheduled tribe (ST) population being negatively affected by this particular road.
19. The tribal population in Uttaranchal and project affected area is not distinctive in the sense that they are inherently integrated with the modern and dominant population of the state. Tribal groups in the project affected area freely interact and share their sources of water, folklore, food, infrastructure and other belongings with the mainstream population and outside community. Moreover, these groups have nuclear families and are open to new ideas like family planning and formal education. Therefore, the socio-economic impacts due to the improvements will not be different for these people when compared with mainstream population. Keeping in view above facts, no separate Indigenous People Development Plan (IPDP) has been prepared for this road.
G. Gender Issues
20. As indicated earlier, no women headed households will be affected as a result of the project. Women in the region are largely involved in household work, cultivation and other agricultural activities. They use the road for their routine household activities and economic activities such as agriculture and marketing etc. Availability of all weather roads with safe connectivity with better transport services will benefit the women folk of the area. Their mobility will be augmented both in terms of access to social services, higher levels of schooling and better health facility etc.
H. Policy Framework
21. In India, compensation for land acquisition (LA) and resettlement assistance for project- affected people is governed by the Land Acquisition Act (1894), which has been amended from time to time. The State Government, at present does not have any policy on Resettlement and Rehabilitation. Under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894, compensation is paid only to the legal titleholders and does not provide any compensation package to the non title holders like encroachers, squatters etc. However, a National Policy on Resettlement and Rehabilitation of project Affected Families, 2004 known as NPRR-2004 has been adopted by the GOI to address development-induced resettlement. The policy essentially addresses the need to provide succor to the asset less rural poor, support the rehabilitation efforts of the resource poor sections, namely, small and marginal farmers, SCs/STs and women who have been displaced. For acquisition of strips of land for railway lines, highways, transmission lines and pipelines, only an ex-gratia payment of Rs 10,000 per family is to be paid under NPRR. This policy does not recognize squatters and encroachers and there is no provision of resettlement assistance and transitional allowances etc. However, despite these provisions, the policy does not define that the compensation of lost assets must be on the basis of replacement cost. Based on the above
analysis of government provisions and ADB’s policy on Involuntary Resettlement, project specific resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) measures have been formulated.
22. Based on the above analysis of government provisions and ADB policy the broad resettlement principle for this project shall be the following: The negative impact on persons affected by the project would be avoided or minimized as much as possible; Where the negative impacts are unavoidable, the persons affected by the project and vulnerable groups will be identified and assisted in improving or regaining their standard of living. Information related to the preparation and implementation of resettlement plan will be disclosed to all stakeholders and people’s participation will be ensured in planning and implementation; Land acquisition for the project would be done as per the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. The Act specifies payment of adequate compensation for the properties to be acquired. Additional support would be extended for meeting the replacement value of the property. The affected persons who does not own land or other properties, but have economic interests or loose their livelihoods will be assisted as per the broad principles described in this document. Widening and strengthening work will take place mostly on the existing alignment except at locations where the existing alignment may require shifting to accommodate bridges reconstructed in new locations adjacent to existing structures; Before taking possession of the acquired lands and properties, compensation and R&R assistance will be paid in accordance with the provision described in this document; An entitlement matrix for different categories of people affected by the project has been prepared and provisions will be kept in the budget for those who were not present at the time of census survey. However, people moving in the project area after the cut-off date will not be entitled to any assistance. In case of land acquisition the date of notification for acquisition will be treated as cut-off date. For non-titleholders such as squatters and encroachers the date of project census survey or a similar designated date declared by the executing agency will be considered as cut-off date. Appropriate grievance redressal mechanism will be established at the district level to ensure speedy resolution of disputes. All activities related to resettlement planning, implementation, and monitoring would ensure the involvement of women and other vulnerable groups. Consultations with the APs will continue during the implementation of resettlement and rehabilitation works.
23. In accordance with the resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) measures suggested for the project, all affected households and persons will be entitled to a combination of compensation packages and resettlement assistance depending on the nature of ownership rights on lost assets and scope of the impacts including socio-economic vulnerability of the affected persons. The affected persons will be entitled to the following five types of compensation and assistance packages (i) compensation for the loss of land, crops/ trees at their replacement value; (ii) compensation for structures (residential/ commercial) and other immovable assets at their replacement value; (iii) assistance in lieu of the loss of business/ wage income; (iv) assistance for shifting, and (v) rebuilding and/ or restoration of community resources/facilities.
24. Compensation will be paid to all APs for the lost assets on the basis of current replacement cost. Resettlement assistance for lost income and livelihoods will be provided to both title holders and non-title holders such as people with traditional or customary land rights, roadside residences/ SBE owners with permits from Panchayat (local government body) and other local agencies to which they are paying annual tax for the same. The “Vulnerable Group” comprises of 1) APs below poverty line (BPL); 2) APs belong to SC and ST category; 3) women headed households (WHH); 4) elderly distressed persons; and 5) disabled persons. An Entitlement Matrix specific to the sub- project has been developed, which recognizes and lists various types of losses resulting out of the project and the compensation and resettlement packages presented in Table 10. Further, all compensation and assistance will be paid to all APs in the first section of each contract package prior to commencement of civil works in first section and displacement or dispossession of assets. The subsequent sections under each contract package will be handed over to the contractor only after payment of compensation/assistance to the APs is completed for each of the sections. The IA will provide satisfactory evidences of payment of compensation and assistances for each section prior to commencement of civil works in the respective sections. All compensation and assistance will be paid at least two months prior to commencement of civil works.
Table 10: Entitlement Matrix
Type of Loss Unit of Entitlement Entitlement Details 1 Loss of residential Households who No compensation for a. Encroachers will be notified and given a time and commercial have illegally land in which they will be required to remove their structure by extended their legally Compensation for assets and harvest their crops. encroachers owned land/ property structures to only b. Compensation for structures at replacement onto public or other vulnerable household cost to the vulnerable households. private land Shifting assistance for c. Shifting allowance of Rs. 1500 to 2500/- vulnerable lump sum for shifting depending on the type encroachers of structure and extent of impact. R&R Assistance only d. Right to salvage materials from the to vulnerable demolished structure. households Right to salvage materials 2 Temporary impact Community / Compensation a. The contractor shall bear the cost of any during construction Individual impact on structure or land due to movement include disruption of of machinery during construction. normal traffic, b. All temporary use of lands outside proposed increased noise RoW to be through written approval of the levels, and damage landowner and contractor. to adjacent parcel of c. Location of Construction camps by land / assets due to contractors in consultation with PWD. movement of heavy machinery 3 Unforeseen impacts Individual/ Unforeseen impacts will be assessed on case by case basis and suitable if any Community compensation/ assistance will be paid as deemed fit by the Executive Agency/ State government.
I. Consultation and Public Participation
25. This SRP was prepared in consultation with both primary and secondary stakeholders including directly affected people, executing agency, implementing agency and various other local administrative agencies and departments etc. Directly affected population was consulted to understand their concerns and suggestions on the types of mitigation measures that should be considered to address their concerns. Five focus group discussions were conducted and issues related to minimization of impacts, benefits and adverse impacts of the road improvements were discussed. The affected household wanted to be compensated for his loss at replacement cost.
26. Further, the consultations and discussions with the project affected people will be a continuing activity throughout the implementation of the project and PIU will be assisted by local NGO for it. The NGO involved in the implementation activities will keep the affected people informed about the impacts, the compensation and assistances proposed for them and facilitate addressing any grievances.
27. The summary of this short resettlement plan and the entitlement matrix will be translated into the local language and will be disclosed to affected persons and made available at offices of PWD, PMU and ADB website.
J. Institutional Arrangements
28. The existing PWD of Uttaranchal has already set up a Project Management Unit (PMU) in Dehradun. This office will be functional for the whole project duration. For resettlement activities, PMU will do the overall coordination, planning, implementation, and financing. The PMU will create a Resettlement Cell (RC) with appointment of a Resettlement Officer (RO) (in the rank of an executive engineer) and required support staff for the duration of the project to ensure timely and effective implementation of RPs. The RO will be assisted by the consultant appointed by PWD for preparation of RPs for project 2 roads. A social development/resettlement specialist under supervision consultant engaged under the loan will be responsible for implementation of the RPs. Project Implementation Units (PIU) will be established at PWD Circle level for the implementation of Project 1. The PMU will coordinate with PIUs for road level RP related activities, and each PIU will additionally designate one senior staff (not below the rank of an Executive Engineer) to co-ordinate the resettlement activities. The PIU, if required depending on the workload will also appoint an assistant resettlement officer (ARO) in rank of assistant engineer who will either be deputed from PWD to the PIU or engaged on contractual basis having adequate land acquisition implementation expertise. The staffs at the PIU level will be provided with training by the social/resettlement specialist of the supervision consultant for implementation of the RP. The PIU will maintain all databases, work closely with APs and other stakeholders and monitor the day today resettlement activities. Apart from this, experienced and well-qualified NGO in this field will be engaged to assist the PIUs in the implementation of the RP. Keeping in view the minimum resettlement impacts occurred from the project only one NGO will be hired for the Phase-1 roads. The NGO would play the role of a facilitator and will work as a link between the PIU and the affected community.
29. A Grievance Redress Committee (GRC) at PIU level will be formed to deal with the disputes and AP’s grievance and facilitate timely implementation of the Project. The GRC will be headed by the District Collector or a representative from the collector’s office. The GRC will have representatives from the PIU office, representatives of APs, particularly of vulnerable APs, local government representatives, NGOs and other interest groups. The GRC will meet as and when grievances are referred to it for redress. Other than disputes relating to ownership rights under the court of law, GRC will review grievances involving all resettlement benefits, compensation, relocation, and other assistance.
K. Monitoring and Evaluation
30. Internal monitoring will be the responsibility of the PIU and NGO. The internal monitoring by PIU will include:
(i) administrative monitoring: daily planning, implementation, feed back and trouble shooting, individual AP database maintenance, and progress reports;
(ii) socio-economic monitoring: case studies, using baseline information for comparing AP socio-economic conditions, evacuation, demolition, salvaging materials, morbidity and mortality, community relationships, dates for consultations, and number of appeals placed; and (iii) impact evaluation monitoring: Income standards restored/improved, and socioeconomic conditions of the affected persons. Monitoring and evaluation reports documenting progress on resettlement implementation and RP completion reports will be provided by the PIU to PMU for review and approval from ADB.
31. For external project monitoring and evaluation, the PMU will engage an individual Independent Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant (IMEC). The person, with previous experience in resettlement activities and familiarity with Government and ADB resettlement policy, will be engaged with ADB concurrence within three months of the loan effectiveness. The IMEC will monitor and verify RP implementation to determine whether resettlement goals have been achieved, livelihood and living standards have been restored, and provide recommendations for improvement. Monitoring will also ensure recording of AP’s views on resettlement issues such as; AP’s understanding of entitlement policies, options, and alternatives; site conditions; compensation valuation and disbursement; grievance redress procedures; and staff competencies. The IMEC will also evaluate the performance of the PIU and NGOs. The IMEC will report its findings simultaneously to the EA and to ADB twice a year. PMU will submit quarterly progress reports and the IMEC will report its findings simultaneously to the EA and to ADB twice a year. Financial provisions will be made under the project budget for above suggested institutional arrangement such as establishing RC, appointment of RO, hiring of NGO and hiring of IMEC etc.
L. Cost Estimate
32. The R&R cost estimate for this road includes eligible compensation and resettlement assistance only. The staffing requirement, transportation, monitoring and evaluation and other administrative expanses etc included in the overall project management cost and presented in Summary Project Resettlement Plan.
33. This will be updated during the implementation and to cover up such updated cost estimates additional provision has been made with 15% contingency. As per the project entitlement matrix the total estimated R&R cost of this road is Rs. 18083/- as summarized in Table 11.
Table 11: R&R Cost Sl. Item Unit Rate (In Quantity Cost (In No. Rs.) Rs.) A Compensation 1 Compensation Permanent structures Sq.m 1500 9.15 13725 Sub Total A 13725 B Assistance 2 Shifting assistance for Encroachers Lump sum 2000 1 2000 Sub Total B 2000 Total R&R Cost (A+B) 15725 C Contingency (15 % of the total R&R 2358 Cost) Grand Total (Total R&R Cost +C) 18083