Jul. 4, 2011, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Local urban NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut has released a new report entitled Rehabilitation of Cambodia’s Railways: Comparison of Field Data. The report, which is a final draft pending possible expansion of its scope, compares independently gathered household data from four communities located along the tracks in Phnom Penh to data gathered by the Inter-Ministerial Resettlement Committee (IRC) in charge of the resettlement of households along the railways.
Based on comparative data from 70 households, the report finds significant and widespread anomalies in the data gathered by the IRC. In the majority of cases, data collected by STT shows households are eligible to receive higher rates of compensation than those proffered by the IRC. Main findings include systematic downgrading of structure types leading to lower compensation rates, a higher number of affected households than the IRC, and discrepancies in living allowances proffered by the IRC.