Social Impact Assessment: from policy to practice

This is the third session of the two-day National Conference on the, 'Five Year Journey of The RFCTLARR Act, 2013' held on 25-26 October 2018. In his Keynote address, Shri Jairam Ramesh, former Minister of Rural Development provided the contextual background to the enactment of The RFCTLARR Act, 2013 and the rationale for incorporating social impact assessment as a precursor to land acquisition proceedings. Dr Debabrata Samanta, Head of Social Impact Assessment Unit in Chandragupt Institute of Management Patna pointed out the challenges of conducting social impact studies and identified the requisite corrective measures. Shri V S Bisht, Executive Vice-President, PTC India Financial Services Ltd. spoke about the importance of social and environmental risk assessments of project as a prelude to funding approval. Dr D Suresh, Divisional Commissioner, Gurgaon underscored the pressing need for efficient land record management and adoption of a scientific matrix for land valuation. Shri Arun Kumar, former Secretary, Ministry of Mines commented about the deleterious effect of the sequence of impact assessments on project initiation.