Abstract
The Lower Suktel Irrigation Project, which commenced in late 1990s, aims to provide irrigation and potable water to the drought prone district Bolangir. It will fully submerge 16 villages andlO villages partially, affected 4160 families including 1222 families belonging to the scheduled tribes. The progress is slow, partly due to the problems pertaining to land acquisition and compensation payment. In the absence of any visible resettlement effort on the ground and fearing the largely negative impact from the dam, people have turned against it. The escalating project costs are also unlikely to deliver the expected benefits, and therefore this study suggests that even now it will be worthwhile to explore an alternative to this costly undertaking. If however the government still wishes to go ahead, the study recommends that displacement be minimised by lowering the dam height and the affected people provided adequate resettlement, which has often not happened in the past.
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