- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, September 08, 2022 : Asian Development Bank organized an orientation workshop on “ADB’s Safeguards Procedures” at a city-based five-star hotel here in Agartala city with the officials of Tripura’s Urban Development department, Agartala Municipal Corporation, Tripura Urban Planning and Development Authority, Tourism department, Agartala Smart City Limited, and Industries & Commerce department.
Addressing the workshop, Agartala Municipal Corporation’s Commissioner Dr Sailesh Kumar Yadav highlighted some of his experiences while working as supervisor of ASCL team. He said “In a recent work on ‘Haora River Front Development Project’, we found that a total of 178 families were staying on the banks of River Haora occupying the land illegally. Every year, these families’ dwellings submerge with river water during the rainy season. As part of this project, these families were accommodated to flats, and money was also given for transportation of their materials. A one-time assistance was also given for a year. There was not a single protest. They shifted their dwellings happily.”
“It is basically a training workshop on environmental and social safeguards. They trained all the project management units of departments like TUDA, Tourism department, UD department, AMC and ASCL, who are doing projects on ADB funding. This workshop is to ensure that the project implementation is smooth and there is no resistance from the community. The project should not cause harm to the community. It should be beneficial, whatever is happening the people should be sure and confident that they are better off with the project rather than without the project. Then they will not obstruct and the project will go on smoothly,” said Dr Yadav, who is also the Mission Director and CEO of the Agartala Smart City Limited (ASCL).
Earlier in this workshop, Secretary of Urban Development department Kiran Kumar Gitte gave the opening remarks. ADB Safeguards Officer Suhail Mircha addressed the workshop on “Understanding ADB’s involuntary resettlement (IR) and Indigenous Peoples (IP) Safeguards Requirements on Policy Principles and Procedures”. He also addressed on “ADB Social Safeguards – Processing & Implementation on IR/IP Checklist, RF/IPPF, Draft and final RP/IPP, and field based due diligence”, “Social Safeguards Monitoring and Reporting requirements”, and “Best practices and challenges in implementation of the social safeguards requirements”.
Thereafter, ADB Environment Officer Nilesh Kumar addressed on “ADB Environmental Safeguards Requirements on Policy Principles and Procedures”, followed by “Understanding the GoI’s Environmental Safeguards Requirements”, “ADB Environmental Safeguards Processing & Implementation, and Monitoring & Reporting Requirements”, and “Best practices and challenges in implementation of the environmental safeguards requirements”.
