Centre’s claim of no displacement of tribals a lie: Congress on Great Nicobar project

The Congress party on Saturday (April 4, 2026) targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government over a new draft plan to “relocate” Nicobarese families affected by the Centre’s ₹92,000-crore Great Nicobar Island mega-infrastructure project, with party leader Jairam Ramesh saying, “The bulldozer moves on unmindful of the concerns of the local communities.”

In a social media post, citing The Hindu’s report on the above-mentioned plan, which has caused confusion and anxiety among locals, the Congress MP and general secretary in-charge of communications, Mr. Ramesh, said that the Centre’s past claims of the project not disturbing or displacing local tribes were “clearly a lie”.

The Hindu reported on Saturday (April 4, 2026) that the district administration had prepared a draft relocation plan for local communities affected by the project on Great Nicobar Island, and was pushing to finalise this draft with the Centre’s lawyers having told the Calcutta High Court that it would “demonstrate” consent of tribals in 15 days’ time.

The project, which was granted Stage-I clearance in 2022, will include a transhipment port, an airport, a power plant, and a township.

Violation of rights

However, the project’s clearances have been challenged before a Bench of the Calcutta High Court, over alleged violations of consent procedures and local tribes’ forest rights.

Referring to the way the project is progressing, Mr. Ramesh, on Saturday (April 4, 2026), said, “The bulldozer moves on unmindful of the concerns of the local communities. But there is a fundamental contradiction here: the [Narendra] Modi Govt. claims that the Great Nicobar infra project will not disturb or displace tribes—then why a relocation plan? Clearly the claim is a lie.”

The draft plan’s details on where the relocation will take place and who will be relocated has created confusion among the community members in Great Nicobar, who have been demanding to return to their ancestral forest lands on the west coast, from where they had been displaced by the 2004 tsunami.