RESETTLEMENT AND REHABILITATION PROGRAMME FOR THE INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENTAL PROJECTS: A CASE STUDY OF JAMUNA BRIDGE

Selina  Ahmed; K. M. Rezaul  Karim

doi:10.53808/KUS.2008.9.2.0831-S

Authors

Selina Ahmed Sociology Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna-9208, Bangladesh
K. M. Rezaul Karim Department of Sociology, Government B. L. College, Khulna 9202

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53808/KUS.2008.9.2.0831-S

Keywords:

Acquisition, resettlement, rehabilitation, displacement, infrastructural development project

Abstract

There is a need of infrastructural development for the development of any country. It is for the welfare of the large number of people, though some people may be affected directly or indirectly affected by it. For the construction of the Jamuna Bridge also, some people were affected for whom a massive resettlement and rehabilitation programme were undertaken. The paper tries to review the policy of the Bangladesh Government towards the resettlement and rehabilitation programme undertaken for the affected people by the construction of Jamuna Bridge. It also tries to evaluate the resettlement and rehabilitation programme. The data used for the paper have been collected through social survey and field observation. It is found that the resettlement and rehabilitation programme is different from traditional one and has been introduced for the first time in Bangladesh. In this programme priority has been given to social and economic rehabilitation. As a new type of activity the programme could not be able to avoid different type of problems like providing lower compensation rate for the land than its actual value, construction of temporary houses or ploughing of vegetables and crops in fallow land during the period of land acquisition, deprivation of actual land owners’ right on the basis of false land records etc. In spite of such problems, the importance of the resettlement and rehabilitation programme is placed within its exceptional viewpoint and newness.

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