Bhopal: After a nudge from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in October last year, the Mohan Yadav government has set up an eight-member steering committee to resolve issues, including the hurdles of land acquisition, related to the 1,400 MW Chutka nuclear power project in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandla district.
On 8 August, the committee was formed with Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) chief engineer Sanjay Ghumaste as its convener. The additional chief secretary, energy department, the principal secretaries of revenue, public works, water works departments, the Jabalpur commissioner, the Mandla collector, and the NPCIL CMD are its members.
The panel was tasked to meet once in every three months to improve interdepartmental coordination and to resolve issues involving land acquisition. The first meeting was held last week in September, in which it agreed to accommodate the villagers’ demands for better rehabilitation.
“We will amicably try to find the best possible solution to resolve the grievances and to meet the legitimate demands of those who would be displaced by this project,” Additional Chief Secretary, Renewable Energy, Manu Shrivastava told ThePrint.
Held up for nearly a decade, the Chutka Madhya Pradesh Atomic Power Plant (CMPAPP) was given an in-principle approval by the Centre in 2009. In December 2015, the Madhya Pradesh government disbursed Rs 37.53 crore to 573 families of the overall 605 families that are to be relocated to acquire 287 hectares of land for the project.
While the land was transferred to the NPCIL in 2017, it constructed colonies by 2021 to accommodate displaced families. But, the Chutka villagers refused to move out and seized the machines brought to carry out geo technical survey for the project in 2018.
Of the total 605 families, largely tribals from Chutka, Kunda, Manegaon and Tatighat villages, to be rehabilitated for the project, 32 would be displaced for the second time after they moved out of their homes in the 1980s for the construction of the Bargi Dam.
Another bone of contention is the allocation of tribal land to the NPCIL allegedly without the consent of residents, as their nod is a must under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution.
The Chutka nuclear power plant is among the 21 nuclear reactors with a combined capacity of 15,300 MW under various stages of implementation. The NPCIL and the Madhya Pradesh Power Generating Company Limited (MPPGCL), the nodal agency to facilitate the project, will share electricity in 50:50 ratio once the power generation takes place.
“The cost of energy generated through nuclear power is at the same rate as thermal. While thermal power costs increase over the period, it goes down with nuclear power. It is a crucial component of the energy basket for India’s ambition to reach net zero by 2070,” Shrivastava said, emphasising the importance of nuclear power.
India has committed to net zero emission by 2070 as part of its efforts to fight global warming. The country’s power generation through nuclear energy has increased from 34,228 million units in 2013-14 to 47,971 million units in 2023-24 with an installed capacity of 8,804 MW through 24 nuclear reactors.
The stalemate
While on paper the Chutka project kept progressing as it got forest clearance in 2017, environment clearance in 2018, and transfer of other private land to NPCIL subsequently, the deadlock over the land acquisition continued on the ground.
According to a senior official from the central government, during a review meeting in September last year of the nuclear power projects under implementation by the NPCIL, it came to light that of the Rs 21,000 crore allocated for Chutka, only Rs 443.93 crore was utilised, so far.
“Subsequently, in the first week of October 2023, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval issued a letter to (then CM) Shivraj Singh Chouhan urging the government to expedite work on the project. And while Chouhan in his reply assured that the officers were given necessary instruction, little was done,” the senior central government official said.
Later, the PMO sought an update on the project and at a review meeting, it was felt that owing to the assembly elections in November 2023 followed by the parliamentary polls in April-May 2024, the matter could be taken once the results were out in June
After the change in leadership in Madhya Pradesh in December, the project was taken up on priority with the then collector of Mandla Saloni Sidana, tasked to rope in the local representatives of Mandla, including the MPs and MLAs, to understand the people’s grievances and to find an amicable solution that would be acceptable to all.
Rehab of project-hit families
Hundreds of families like that of Dadu Lal Khurate in Chutka have little trust left in the government when it comes to their basic rights.
“The government forced people out of their land for Bargi and they gave peanuts as compensation. It couldn’t even fetch them a proper two-bigha land and left them landless. We want jungle and ‘zameen’ (land). What will we do in the tiny rooms built by NPCIL? Those rooms can barely accommodate our goats. Why is that the government only finds tribal villages to displace for all their energy requirements?” Khurate told ThePrint, adding that they will not allow the government to even pick up a stone.
An officer working on the project said that there is an agreement to not only review the rehabilitation package, but to also give people the opportunity to construct their own homes, as they are dissatisfied with the apartments built by the NPCIL as mandated in the rules.
The compensation to be given to families facing displacement twice will also be revised, the officer said. There was also a demand to increase the scope of government acquisition to acquire land belonging to a handful of people in Tatighat who would be landlocked once the project comes up. The government is also working to acquire their land, the officer added.
According to the government, the project is also expected to create indirect and direct employment opportunities for about 8,000 people. Along with this, the roads in the region have been widened while an ambulance on wheel has been started to provide medical facilities to the tribals of the region under the CSR activity of the project.
But, the project is meeting stiff opposition also from the residents of the surrounding 100 villages, who oppose the project fearing adverse health impacts.
“The opposition is not just to the unjust compensation pushed to the villages for their land but also the overall impact on those nearby. First, villagers were displaced stating power from the Bargi dam will help light their homes and irrigate their fields. But that remains far from truth, and now they are once again being pushed out for nuclear power,” said activist Rajkumar Sinha, who has been working with the Bargi families and now associated with the movement opposing the project.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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