A three-judge bench said even temporary project affected families (PAFs) were entitled to alternative cultivable land if they were hit because of the increase in the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river. The order, by judges Y.K. Sabharwal, K.G. Balakrishnan and S.B. Sinha, would have a bearing on relief and rehabilitation measures undertaken by Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh before increasing the dam’s height. On a petition filed by Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), the apex court had earlier said that the height could be raised in phases up to 138 metres after completing relief and rehabilitation measures for PAFs. The present order on applications filed on behalf of PAFs from village Pichodi and Jalsindhi in Madhya Pradesh would mean that all the three states would have to allot alternative land to those hit by the dam permanently or temporarily. The bench also held that each major son of a PAF would be entitled to separate land allotments at alternative sites in addition to the land allotted to the PAF as each major son would be treated as a separate unit. The bench directed the Grievance Redressal Authority (GRA) to work out the relief and rehabilitation package for PAFs taking into account today’s ruling. It was alleged in the applications, filed on a pending writ petition by NBA, that the villages which were about to get submerged due to raising of the Sardar Sarovar Dam had not been rehabilitated. Further if the height was increased they apprehended submergence of their villages any moment. They said that the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal award and the apex court judgment dated Oct 16,
2000 had directed that rehabilitation programme of the affected people had to be completed much before the anticipated submergence. They alleged that though the villagers had been declared as PAFs when the dam reached a height of 95 metres, they were not rehabilitated even after the height touched 100 metres. They pointed out that the apex court had directed that the state concerned could go ahead with the raising of the dam height only when it had completed the rehabilitation of PAFs.