Abstract :
The paper explores the dynamics of the phenomenon of Development Induced
Displacement and the theoretical, legal, and policy level issues which have impeded the
fluent process of implementation of development projects in India. Modern India has
found itself embroiled in this tussle between the development plans of the State at the
macro level and their undesirable consequences for the specific project affected people.
Though the exigencies of time and the logic of the liberalization policy demand the
continuous articulation of development projects, it is equally imperative to transcend
the disempowering effects of displacement on its people.Despite recent initiatives by the
government, concrete policy statements and laws governing the issues of compensation
and resettlement are found wanting. The paper argues that there is an urgent need for
the state to reach a necessary balance between its efforts to augur development and to
make it sustainable, just, and equitous. The problems encountered in the allocation
of compensation and resettlement in such projects form the focus of the article. The
experiences of dam-induced displacement at the Sardar Sarovar Project in theNarmada
River Valley Project in Gujarat in India are highlighted to serve as illustrations.
