Democracy entails statutory safeguards against infringement of the inalienable rights of the people. But in the country today, the state of legislations protecting the people from wanton development is abysmal.

Only Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Maharashtra have some kind of an act regarding resettlement and rehabilitation. In Karnataka, the Act passed in 1987 is still awaiting Presidential assent.

The MP Act became effective in 1985, addressing itself to "resettlement" of oustees. The Maharashtra Act of 1986, going by its nomenclature, emphasised "rehabilitation".

Says Enakshi Ganguli Thukral of the Multiple Action Research Group (MARG), a Delhi-based NGO, "One is not sure whether the framers of these 2 Acts realised the precise connotations of the 2 terms. Resettlement implies only physically relocating displaced persons in a new region. But rehabilitation means restoring to good condition the rights and privileges of the oustees. In addition to relocating them to an area of their choice and systematically organising their transfer to this site, ideal rehabilitation would mean providing such aid and facilities as would restore their former self-sufficient lifestyles."

Many aspects of the resettlement and rehabilitation policy of Orissa's department of water resources, passed in 1994, have been lauded by Lakshman Kumar Mahapatra, former vice chancellor of Utkal University. But, he says, "The issue of payment of compensation is the weakest part of the policy. There is no mention of the people's rights over trees, or how the compensation is to be assessed."

None of the state government Acts hold good for inter-state projects, nor do they specify the time-frame for completing resettlement and rehabilitation. The Union government itself is still going by the T N Singh Formula of 1967 vintage, which says that each family displaced by an industrial project must be given at least 1 job. However, most of the recently displaced persons being illiterate, the formula really amounts to precious little.