ADB report finds gov’t shirking duty

The government is refusing to compensate up to 1,000 families forced to wait for income restoration measures after being relocated from their homes for an Asian Development Bank-funded railway rehabilitation project, a previously unreleased action plan from the ADB reveals. The ADB Management Action Plan, released on Friday and prepared in consultation with the government, also says that authorities have not agreed to help finance a debt workout scheme that would aid poor families who found themselves without adequate relocation funds and sources of new income after resettlement, becoming heavily indebted as a result. The government will, however, pay additional compensation to families whose original homes were undervalued at the time of resettlement. Moreover, “transition allowances” – designed to ease the burden of moving – which were paid to families from 2009 onwards but calculated in 2006, will be adjusted and doled out so they finally account for significant inflation. …

Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/adb-report-finds-gov%E2%80%99t-shirking-duty