CUTTACK: In a significant decision, the Orissa High Court has endorsed denial of entitlements under Odisha Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy to project affected family (PAF) in contrast to project displaced family (PDF).
A PAF is a family that, despite being affected, retains some land or property and has not been entirely displaced, while PDF is defined as a family that has been wholly displaced from their original homestead land.
The court gave the stamp of approval while dismissing a petition filed by a person who had sought rehabilitation and resettlement benefits after receiving compensation for his land that was acquired for establishment of an industry in Angul district in 2000.
Balaram Behera filed the petition after his plea for rehabilitation and resettlement was rejected by collector, Angul, on January 10, 2024.
The division bench of Justice SK Sahoo and Justice Chittaranjan Dash said the collector’s order was “both justified and consistent” with the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 and the Odisha Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy, 2006 under which the distinction between PDF and PAF hinges on the degree of displacement experience.
The bench held that the petitioner’s ability to construct and maintain buildings on the remaining unacquired land supports the classification as a PAF, not a PDF. “It is apparent on the face of record that on account of acquisition of land, the family of the petitioner is not relocated and resettled from the affected area to the resettlement area rather the petitioner has constructed a new house on the remaining unacquired portion of his plot,” the bench observed in its August 8 order.