Security officials along the banks of Barana river during the 15-day protest against the Ken-Betwa Link project, in Chhatarpur district, Madhya Pradesh, on July 19, 2026.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs on Thursday (August 6, 2026) acknowledged in Parliament that it had received several complaints about “issues of displacement” in Madhya Pradesh owing to the Ken-Betwa river linking project but that it had sent all of these complaints to the Madhya Pradesh government and district authorities, saying the State government was responsible for implementing the forest rights law.
This comes even as locals and tribal communities in the State’s Chhatarpur district have been protesting against the project for months, accusing authorities of forcibly evicting families even before the full compensation process has been completed, alleging irregularities in the process for Gram Sabha consent and selection of beneficiaries for compensation, and demanding that each adult be considered a unit for compensation as opposed to a family.
Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Durgadas Uikey was responding to a question from Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party MP Ajendra Singh Lodhi in the Lok Sabha on the details of families affected by the Ken-Betwa Link project and complaints about irregularities in the consent, rehabilitation, and compensation procedures being implemented for it.
In response to the questions, Mr. Uikey said that while his Ministry had forwarded the complaints against State authorities to the State government, the Tribal Affairs Ministry has been “exhorting” State and Union Territory governments to comply with provisions of the Forest Rights Act that prohibit the eviction or removal of claimants of forest rights until the procedure recognising and verifying it has been completed.
States should comply
On questions of irregularities in Gram Sabha consent procedures, rehabilitation and resettlement, and compensation to the affected families, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs maintained that all of these functions were for the State government or the project authority to perform, adding that it has regularly been notifying the State governments to comply with provisions of the Forest Rights Act. Even though States are meant to implement the forest rights law, it mandates that the Tribal Affairs Ministry act as the nodal ministry for this.
Further, on questions about the number of families affected by the current phase of the Ken-Betwa project, the Tribal Affairs Ministry cited a decade-old estimate from the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) that accounted for displacement of families due to Phase-I alone.
The visuals from the demonstration grabbed national attention on social media, where men and women could be seen placing a hanging noose around the neck while some lay on symbolic pyres inside the waters of the Barana river in Chhattarpur district. The protest, first held in April, was relaunched in July after discussions and efforts by the government failed to convince the villagers.
Soon after the protests resumed, the police on July 19 cleared the protest site and forcibly took local activist Amit Bhatnagar of the Jai Kisan Sangathan to the hospital and removed nearly 150 protesters from the area. Mr. Bhatnagar had been on a hunger strike for 14 days at the time.
Published – August 06, 2026 05:24 pm IST
