A medium irrigation project has been proposed on the Tem River along the boundary of Lateri tehsil in Vidisha district and Berasia tehsil in Bhopal district. The project is intended to provide irrigation and drinking water to rural areas of Vidisha, Guna and Bhopal districts. However, construction work has been halted for nearly two years because the Forest Department has not issued the required No Objection Certificate (NOC).
On September 7, farmers affected by the project held a major protest in Lateri over discrepancies in compensation and rehabilitation.
“The project is significantly behind its scheduled timeline,” Sukhpal Singh, sarpanch of Bairagarh Gram Panchayat and the leader of the protest, said. “So far, the affected villagers have received compensation only for their land, while compensation for their property, displacement benefits and rehabilitation facilities have not been provided.”
While villagers have raised questions about rehabilitation, officials claimed that most of the awards have already been issued. On the demand for four-times compensation, the administration said that since the project predates the relevant rules, the affected farmers are not eligible. Meanwhile, experts have objected to construction work being carried out before forest clearance is obtained.
Problems faced by villagers
According to reports published in the media, the project was approved around 10 years ago. The project has a proposed submergence area of approximately 1,265.98 hectares. It is expected to provide irrigation water to 67 villages in Guna district and two villages in Bhopal district. With an estimated cost of ₹383.15 crore, the project is expected to irrigate 9,990 hectares of land.
Drinking water from the project will benefit 210 villages in the Lateri tehsil of the Vidisha district. Seven villages will be affected by the project. Four will be partially submerged, while three will be completely submerged.
According to Singh, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana has currently been put on hold in the Dhirgarh and Bairagarh gram panchayats. However, three villages under Bairagarh Gram Panchayat have no families facing displacement. The scheme has also been put on hold in villages such as Haripura Majra, Bhilkhedi Karaya and Jamoniya.
On compensation, Singh said the land acquisition process has not been completed and that only compensation for the land has been paid. Awards for immovable assets such as houses and wells, as well as displacement compensation, have not been issued. The farmers demand four times compensation.
Government’s position
“Most of our awards have already been completed. Only houses and other assets were pending, and we have completed those as well,” said Lateri Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Anil Kachware, clarifying the administration’s position on the villagers’ allegations. “Their awards were issued earlier, while the rule providing four-times compensation came later. So how can we give them four times the amount?”
On April 22, 2026, the state cabinet decided that when agricultural land is acquired for any project, the landowner would receive compensation at four times the market value instead of twice the market value.
Kachware said there are 106 farmers whose land is jointly owned by more than one person. He said, “If these people reach an agreement among themselves about whose account the compensation should be deposited into, we will transfer their money as well.”
Proposal pending with increased forest area
Kundan Kushwaha, a cartographer with the Vidisha Forest Division, clarified the status of the forest land that will fall within the project’s submergence area.
He said the Water Resources Department had applied to the Government of India for forest clearance in 2017. Subsequently, a proposal with an increased area was uploaded on the PARIVESH portal in 2024, and the area was increased again in a proposal uploaded on March 17, 2026.
After the final proposal was submitted in 2026, the Forest Department conducted surveys and other procedures and forwarded the file to the nodal officer for approval. According to Kushwaha, the proposal covers a total of 372.773 hectares of forest land across the three districts. The 2017 proposal had identified 203.015 hectares.
Under the new proposal, 111.024 hectares in Vidisha, 256.159 hectares in Bhopal and 5.589 hectares in Guna have been included.
Work halted after permission was not granted
Construction of the project began in 2021, but work is currently halted. The contractor overseeing the dam construction said, “I cannot say exactly what percentage of the work has been completed, but work has been stopped for the past two years because forest clearance has not been granted.”
Kamlesh Kumar also said, “We have not carried out any work on Forest Department land. We have worked only on revenue land. Once forest clearance is received, we will complete the project within a year. At present, the Stage-I case has been uploaded and is under process.”
What does the policy say?
Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) and a specialist on dam-related issues, said that construction work of this nature cannot legally proceed without final forest clearance.
“Proceeding with the construction of a dam like this without the final forest clearance report is not only illegal but also violates the Forest Conservation Act, the Forest Rights Act and the rights of the people,” Thakkar said.
Thakkar believes that such cases should be challenged in court because they disregard the law and people’s rights.
Under Section 1A(1)(b) of the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023, the provisions of the Act apply to land recorded as “forest” in government records of the Revenue or Forest Department on or after October 25, 1980. The exemptions available under Section 1A(2)(c) of the amended Act are limited to security and public utility projects covering only 5 to 10 hectares.
Since 372.773 hectares of forest area are affected by the Tem project, Thakkar believes that construction even on revenue land is not legally permissible without forest clearance.
Meanwhile, according to Kushwaha, approximately 382 hectares of land have been made available as compensatory land against the 372 hectares of forest land affected by the project. This land is located across Bhopal, Vidisha, Guna and Shajapur districts.
When contacted for a response, Priyanka Bhandari, Executive Engineer of the Water Resources Department in Basoda, said she could not hear properly on the phone and disconnected the call. She could not be reached afterwards.
No response was received from Vidisha Collector Anshul Gupta either.
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