Kitchen Garden Forum

As the competitors worry about grubby washbasins and mucky lavs, spare a thought for the hundreds of thousands of locals displaced stage this one-off event.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... s_business

Hi Alan,
You can come just a little nearer home. The privately owned Motorway the Toll, where once a route is was agreed, by those who do not live anywhere near to the road and it will not affect, impose compulsory purchase orders on householders and farmers. That was bad enough but now with the proposed high-speed rail link it is happening again.
Although I feel for the displaced Indians I feel more for our own citizens who are to lose their houses and do not have enough compensation to buy a alternative property of the same standard.
JB.

Johnboy. Seem to recall some years ago visiting the SOMME Battlefields by a Frenchman, that their government pay market value plus 5% on compulsory purchases, result no problems. I suppose that is to simple for our government to operate.

Hi Shallot Man,
What appears to be wrong in this country is that once a route is agreed and designated by the government it is the private company that has the power of compulsory purchase. Somebody please correct me if I am wrong
about this, but this is how it appears to me.
There are farms that are going to be cut in half so a milking parlour is one side of the railway and all the grazing and cattle are on the other side with the rail company having no intentions of providing a bridge to couple them up and it means by road transport the two halves of the farm are 20 miles apart.
This appears to be the British way of doing things! A total balls-up before they even start!
JB.
Apologies Alan,
I seem to have changed the thread somewhat. Perhaps one of the moderators could kindly change the situation and open a new thread for me. Thick as ever, JB.

Hi Johnboy

I do sympathise with those at home who suffer displacement. However the point I was trying to make, re the Commonwealth Games, was how much the media concentrate on one side of the story (dirty accommodation) and almost totally ignore the other side (the actual human misery caused to local people).
Also, there is a vast difference of scale. Those directly affected by the toll road and the rail link must amount to at the most a few thousand, and they have received some (albeit inadequate) compensation, for the benefit of hundreds of thousands/millions of people over a long period. And they haven't simply been displaced (swept under the carpet). In New Delhi hundreds of thousands have been affected (and I doubt whether they have been compensated at all) for the benefit of a few thousand athletes to compete for a few days.

Alan