ADB says aid plan for railway evictees still under negotiation
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday insisted that the Cambodian government has not turned down any of its recommendations for helping thousands of families hurt by a bank-funded project, claiming that talks over how to compensate and support the families were still underway. Last week, the bank released a plan it had worked out with the government to help the roughly 4,000 families affected by its $143 million project to rehabilitate the country’s railway tracks, including 1,000 families forced to relocate and take on debilitating levels of debt to cover the move. … The affected families and the housing rights groups helping them have criticized the ADB for suggesting that the cost of giving the families the additional compensation they deserve, estimated to cost between $3 million and $4 million, should be covered with another loan from the ADB. They say the ADB should cover the cost itself now that the bank has accepted responsibility for making families worse off. But Ms. Palmer ruled out that option Wednesday, saying that “rectifying instances of under compensation remain the government’s responsibility.” …
Zsombor Peter and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/adb-says-aid-plan-for-railway-evictees-still-under-negotiation-57859/
