Adivasis and Activists Warn Maharashtra Government Against Permitting Completion of Sardar Sarovar Dam

By Dilip -
9th June 2014
Press Note
  • Narmada Dam Oustees Demand Legal, Just Rehabilitation First!
  • Adivasis and Activists Warn the Maharashtra Government Against Permitting Completion of Sardar Sarovar Dam
Today a large delegation of adivasis affected by Sardar Sarovar Dam(SSP)in the Nandurbar district of Maharashtra met the Collector, Pradip P. and CEO, Zila Parishad, Nandurbar and held four hour long dialogue on the issue of rehabilitation of thousands of adivasis in maharastra before raising dam height to 17 meters to completetion.

As Anandi ben Mehta, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, has started a campaign expressing her confidence that Mr Modi, the Prime Minister of India, would soon permit the erection of 17 meters high gates to finish off the dam. The people in the Narmada valley have shown the courage and commitment to question the same.

“We have been always  presenting the data to establish the truth regarding displacement & environment but now we will be much more cautious about the politics behind the vested interest that is being pushed in violation of law and justice both” asserted Yogini Khanolkar. Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) has always declared that there are 2.5 lac. people residing in the submergence area of SSP (in 3 states) as on today in the communities with thousands of pakka houses, markets, shops with best of horticulture and agriculture, millions of trees,temples and mosques. 

All this just cannot be drowned by erection and closing of gates without rehabilitation since that will be in violation of Supreme Court's judgments. The question is whether Mr. Modi would act like the CM of Gujarat or PM of whole of India? Will he take the steps  to ensure that no condition is flouted and no family , that has not obtained all the rehab benefits would get affected?

If the Dam is pushed ahead letting waters in SSP reservoir rise by 17meters above ahead disastrous flood till last year, Who will take the responsibility for the contempt of court and the case of illegal submergence? And who would wipe the tears of adivasis, farmers, others and compensate the loses? Will there be a thorough enquiry into compliance on the environmental conditions of the MoEF, the Central Ministry ?

In today's meeting in the Collector's office the NBA team has categorically conveyed to the Government of Maharashtra that there are not less than one 1000 adivasi families who are yet to be rehabilitated with land, houses, plots, irrigation and other amenities. They have also demanded full fledged health facilities and rationing with regularity and boat service in every village, since last year itself people had faced hell, death of destruction without all these services. While the situation is horrifying till date and the monsoon is at the door steps the senior officials have promised that they will take the challenge and ensure regular availability of doctors and medicines in the valley. Noorji Vasawe of Chimalkhedi narrated the story of snake bites and crocodile attacks without a doctor or the Barge with mobile dispensary anywhere in the site. A schoolgirl died,slipping into the river turned reservoir as there are no jettis nor lifting water scheme...

Where is agricultural land for rehabilitation? The collector is promising to show the land once again much of which is already shown and rejected. NBA proposal has been that of denuded forest land or private purchased at market rate. ''We cannot tolerate  nor accept any money package. Cash  in lieu of land is neither legal nor beneficial to any adivasi. Only 51 adivasis who accepted cash, feel totally cheated as they could not purchase land within the amount and many of them are willing to return back the money package of 10 lakhs per hectare', said Manglya Pavara. In Madhya Pradesh the policy to pay cash for land led to fake registries scam! which is under enquiry as per the High Court order.

NBA appeals today to all the supporters to watch any move to raise the height and flood the valley where there are 2.5 lakh people with farms and houses, through a decision by Modi's government, it will be illegal and unjust .

NBA Demands:
  • Immediate halt to any process to raise the dam height and expedite fair and just rehabilitation with land, livelihood and rehab sites, as per law.
  • To initiate a review of costs and benefits of the project that is proving to be taking up a big toll of nature, life and livelihood.

Medha Patkar Vijay Valvi Yogini Khanolkar Noorji Valwe Chetan Salve

Popular posts from this blog

Third degree torture used on Maruti workers: Rights body

By Dilip -
The People’s Union for Democratic Rights on Tuesday alleged that third degree torture methods were used by the Gurgaon Criminal Investigation Agency while interrogating workers of Maruti Suzuki India Limited’s Manesar plant who are accused of involvement in the killing of an HR manager and the violent attack at the plant on July 18. The PUDR alleged that the Gurgaon CIA investigation “did not seem” to be directed at solving the crime or probing the involvement of the arrested workers in the incidents and crimes recorded in the FIR but instead was based on their involvement in trade union activities. Grave doubts  “The use of third degree torture in police custody, and the securing of arrestees’ signatures on blank papers by the police, gives rise to grave doubts regarding the ability of such an investigation in effectively identifying or arresting those guilty. The police and the State seem keener to reassure Maruti Suzuki Ltd. and ensure that production continues,” the PUDR stat
Read more

Haruki Murakami: On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning

By Dilip -
According to Murakami, “1Q84” is just an amplification of one of his most popular short stories,   which (in its English version) is five pages long. “Basically, it’s the same,” he told me. “A boy meets a girl. They have separated and are looking for each other. It’s a simple story. I just made it long.” One beautiful April morning, on a narrow side street in Tokyo's fashionable Harujuku neighborhood, I walked past the 100% perfect girl. Tell you the truth, she's not that good-looking. She doesn't stand out in any way. Her clothes are nothing special. The back of her hair is still bent out of shape from sleep. She isn't young, either - must be near thirty, not even close to a "girl," properly speaking. But still, I know from fifty yards away: She's the 100% perfect girl for me. The moment I see her, there's a rumbling in my chest, and my mouth is as dry as a desert..." read the story: http://www.youmightfindyourself.com/post/22131227
Read more

The Almond Trees by Albert Camus (1940)

By Dilip -
Image
'Do you know', Napoleon once said to Fontanes, 'what astounds me most about the world?  The impotence of force to establish anything.  There are only two powers in the world: the sword and the mind.  In the end, the sword is always conquered by the mind' Conquerors, you see, are sometimes melancholy.  They have to pay some price for so much vainglory. But what a hundred years ago was true of the sword is no longer true today of the tank. Conquerors have made progress, and the dismal silence of places without intelligence has been established for years at a time in a lacerated Europe. At the time of the hideous wars of Flanders, Dutch painters could still perhaps paint the cockerels in their farmyards. The Hundred Years War has likewise been forgotten, and yet the prayers of Silesian mystics still linger in some hearts. But today, things have changed; the painter and the monk have been drafted - we are one with the world.  The mind has lost that regal certainty which a c
Read more

Albert Camus's lecture 'The Human Crisis', New York, March 1946. 'No cause justifies the murder of innocents'

By Dilip -
The morning after a great historical crisis, you feel as sad and sick as after a heavy night. But there is no aspirin for historical hangovers .. The world is no longer divided into the just or unjust, but into masters and slaves. He who is right is he who enslaves.  Albert Camus     La crise de l'homme : THE HUMAN CRISIS   (Text read by Viggo Mortensen on March 28 2016)   Ladies and Gentlemen: when I was invited to give a series of lectures in the United States of America, I felt some doubt and hesitation. I am really not old enough to give lectures, and I am more at ease with the process of thinking than I am making categorical statements... since I don't feel I have any claim on what is generally called the truth. I shared this reservation and was very politely told that my personal opinion didn't matter. What mattered was that I'd be able to offer some facts about France so that my listeners could form their own opinions. It was then suggested that I might
Read more

Etel Adnan - To Be In A Time Of War

By Dilip -
NB: Etel Adnan, writer, poet, artist and musician was born in 1925 and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. Her mother was a Greek from Smyrna, her father, a high ranking Ottoman officer born in Damascus. This prose poem is the final chapter of her book  In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country .  Read more about her here  - DS To Be In A Time Of War To say nothing, do nothing, mark time, to bend, to straighten up, to blame oneself, to stand, to go toward the window, to change one’s mind in the process, to return to one’s chair, to stand again, to go to the bathroom, to close the door, to then open the door, to go to the kitchen, to not eat nor drink, to return to the table, to be bored, to take a few steps on the rug, to come close to the chimney, to look at it, to find it dull, to turn left until the main door, to come back to the room, to hesitate, to go on, just a bit, a trifle, to stop, to pull the right side of the curtain, then the other side, to stare at
Read more

After the Truth Shower

By Dilip -
Dear Readers Thank you for reading my blog for the past eleven years. (This is a link to the new one) During this time it has had nearly 1.7 million hits; and I have posted over 9500 posts covering a variety of themes. From July 11 to 19, 2022, my blog was withdrawn by the Blogger administration on account of what its machinery suspected to be 'Impersonation'. It took over a week and the efforts of several well-wishers to get it back online I thank them all for their kindness and goodwill  My blog has always been - and remains - non-commercial. I have used it for academic purposes; and to foster a culture of debate and informed commentary in civil society. Because it contains a large amount of material gathered and collated for over a decade, I cannot afford to lose its contents. I hope it will remain undisturbed now and function as an archive. However, I have decided to use a new blog on WordPress as a platform for my newest comments and posts The new blog is titled After the
Read more

Rudyard Kipling: critical essay by George Orwell (1942)

By Dilip -
Mother of Cities to me, For I was born in her gate, Between the palms and the sea, Where the world-end steamers wait  Rudyard Kipling , To the City of Bombay "Few people who have criticized England from the inside have said bitterer things about her than this gutter patriot" : George Orwell IT WAS a pity that Mr. Eliot should be so much on the defensive in the long essay with which he prefaces this selection of Kipling's poetry, but it was not to be avoided, because before one can even speak about Kipling one has to clear away a legend that has been created by two sets of people who have not read his works. Kipling is in the peculiar position of having been a byword for fifty years. During five literary generations every enlightened person has despised him, and at the end of that time nine-tenths of those enlightened persons are forgotten and Kipling is in some sense still there. Mr. Eliot never satisfactorily explains this fact, because in answering the shal
Read more