Social impact assessment: A study of Rajpura Thermal Power Project

Pages: 448-453
Harjeet Kaur (Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Punjabi University, Patiala)

Social impacts are impacts of developmental interventions on human settlements. Such social impacts assessments is predicated on the nation that development interventions have social ramifications and it is imperatives that decision- makers understands the consequence of their decisions before they act and people affected get the opportunity to participate in designing their future. The present study is an attempt to assess the impact of thermal power plant on the people in the rural area of Punjab. The main focus is to examine the positive and negative impacts of the project on social and economic lives of the people due to displacement and alienation of their agricultural land and other means of livelihood. To delimit/purposive the study a village of Rajpura Tehsil of Patiala District this would be affected by the proposed project. Rajpura Thermal Power Plant Project would spread over 1100 acres (approximate) of land affecting 8 villages. The initial social impact study of the proposed project area, therefore, is taken up with the objectives like to assess socio-economic status of the people of the project affected villages, to prepare a general demographic profile of the project affected villages, to examine the positive and negative impacts of the project on the social and economic lives of the people due to displacement and alienation of their agricultural lands and other means of livelihood, to evolve preliminary suggestions and guidelines for a systematic settlement and rehabilitation of the project affected people.