The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has finally admitted that the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation (PM CARES) Fund, does not belong to the Government of India (GoI) and is infact a “third party”. This shocking revelation has set the cat among the pigeons, what with the fund being launched with a high intensity public relations campaign and previous declarations of involvement of not just the Prime Minister, but several top government officials.

Were these previous official statements, just an effort to add a touch of legitimacy to the fund whose ownership remains nebulous? Has the government been gaslighting us so far?

In a written submission made before the Delhi High Court in connection with a petition seeking that PM CARES Fund be declared as ‘The State’ under Article 12 of the Constitution, Pradeep Kumar Srivastava, an Under Secretary at the PMO, has stated, “Irrespective of whether the trust is a “State” or other authority within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India and or whether it is a ‘public authority’ within the meaning of section 2[h] of Right to Information Act, Section 8 in general and that of provisions contained in sub section [e] and [j], in particular, of the Right to Information Act, it is not permissible to disclose third party information.” Also, the fund’s amount does not go into the Consolidated Fund of India. The PMO official further submitted that his role in the fund is on an honourary basis and that its funds are audited by a Chartered Accountant from the panel prepared by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

PM CARES Fund: The official story

As per the PM CARES Fund’s own website, “PM CARES Fund has been registered as a Public Charitable Trust. The trust deed of PM CARES Fund has been registered under the Registration Act, 1908 at New Delhi on 27th March, 2020.” It was set up with the primary objective to deal with any kind of emergency situation like the one currently posed by the Covid-19 outbreak and provide relief to those affected. According to the Fund’s official website, “The primary objectives of the PM CARES Fund Trust are:-

1. To undertake and support relief or assistance of any kind relating to a public health emergency or any other kind of emergency, calamity or distress, either man-made or natural, including the creation or upgradation of healthcare or pharmaceutical facilities, other necessary infrastructure, funding relevant research or any other type of support.
2. To render financial assistance, provide grants of payments of money or take such other steps as may be deemed necessary by the Board of Trustees to assist the affected population.
3. To undertake any other activity, which is not inconsistent with the above Objects.”

As far as trustees are concerned, “The Prime Minister is Chairperson (ex-officio) of the PM CARES Fund and Minister of Defence, Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Finance, Government of India are ex-officio Trustees of the Fund.” Additionally, “The Prime Minister, as the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of PM CARES Fund, has the power to nominate three trustees to the Board who shall be eminent persons in the field of research, health, science, social work, law, public administration and philanthropy. All the Trustees of the PM CARES Fund act in a pro bono capacity.” Moreover, “The fund is administered on an honorary basis by a Joint Secretary (Administration) in the PMO as Secretary to the fund, who is assisted on honorary basis by an Officer of the rank of Director/Deputy Secretary (Administration) in the PMO. The Prime Minister’s Office provides such administrative and secretarial support to the Trustees for the management and administration of the Trust, as may be required by the Trustees.” The website also says, “The Head Office of the Fund is Prime Minister’s Office, South Block, New Delhi.”

Interestingly, on the subject of audits, the website says, “PM CARES Fund is audited by an independent auditor. Trustees of the Fund during the 2nd meeting held on 23.04.2020 decided to appoint M/s SARC & Associates, Chartered Accountants, New Delhi as the auditors of PM CARES Fund for 3 years.” This is not in line with the submission made before the Delhi HC where it was said that the auditor was appointed by a panel prepared by the CAG.

Why you should care about PM CARES

All this creates an interesting grey area for the Fund to operate in. It boasts of honourary / pro bono involvement of top public officials, thus dodging the bullet on their remunerations for their duties to the Fund being paid from public money. The presence of elected government officials as trustees, also adds to the legitimacy quotient. However, it does not say anything about public ownership of the fund.

In light of the latest disclosure, are these government officials, trustees in a private capacity? How are individuals, acting in a private capacity, allowed to be trustees of a public trust?

Why is the Head Office of a Fund that is not owned by the Government of India, located in Prime Minister’s Office?

And, if PM CARES is a Public Charitable Trust and registered as such, in light of the recent revelations, how is it then “not permissible to disclose third party information”?

If all donations have been made via electronic transfers and credit cards, in a purported bid to maintain transparency, why is this “transparency” being hidden behind a veil by preventing scrutiny by way of bringing the Fund under the Right to Information (RTI) Act?

Also, why were public servants and defence personnel such as members of the Indian Air Force (IAF) made to contribute from their salaries to the fund if it is not owned by the Government of India?

How much money is involved?

As per the official website, where the data appears to be outdated, “During 2019-20, an amount of Rs. 3076.62 Crore was collected under PM CARES Fund.” This includes, Rs. 39.68 lakh that was collected in foreign currency. There is no information about donations in 2020-21.

As far as allocations are concerned, the website says, “So far, an amount of Rs. 3100 Crore has been allocated from PM CARES Fund for the following activities:-

1. Rs. 2000 Crore : For supply of 50,000 ‘Made-in India’ ventilators to Government Hospitals run by Centre/States/UTs
2. Rs. 1000 Crore : For care of migrant labourers (funds allotted to State/UT Govts.)
3. Rs. 100 Crore : For vaccine development”

This is interesting because the Made in India ventilators had drawn flak from the Bombay High Court when it was discovered that at least 113 out of 150 ventilators supplied to the Government Medical College and Hospital, Aurangabad, through the PM CARES Fund, were found to be faulty. Six sets of flaws were detected in these ventilators. A company by the name of Jyoti CNC has manufactured the said 150 ventilators with the model name ‘Dhaman III’.

Some of the faults found in these ventilators include ‘no in-let O2 pressure’ display and ‘patient becoming hypoxic’ when on ventilator. The court was also informed that the private hospitals which were given 41 ventilators indicated that all of them were non-functional and declined to use them as it could be life threatening for patients. The Dean of government hospital, Ambajogai, also informed the court that none of the ventilators given to them were worthy of being put to use.

During a hearing on May 25, 2021, a Bench comprising Justices Ravindra Ghuge and BU Debadwar of the Bombay High Court (Aurangabad Bench), observed, “We find a serious issue before us as regards the defective functioning of the ventilators. Except the 37 ventilators which are yet to be un-boxed, 113 ventilators put to use are found to be defective…We find the above situation as regards the dysfunctional ventilators supplied through the PM Cares Fund, to be quite serious. We, therefore, call upon the learned ASGI to state, as to what action would the Union of India initiate in these circumstances.”

A few days later, Central Government reportedly submitted that the 150 ventilators in question were supplied through “Make-in-India and not through the PMCARES Fund.” This is interesting because according to PM CARES Fund’s own website the “Made in India” ventilators were allocated Rs 2000 crores under the PM CARES Fund. Which ventilators were then manufactured using these funds, and how did non-PM CARES Fund ventilators get allocated to government run hospitals? What funds were used to supply these defective ventilators under the ‘Make in India’ initiative? In light of poor quality of these ventilators, doesn’t the ‘Make in India’ initiative itself not come under the scanner for manufacturing and supplying defective products, especially amidst a crisis involving life and death situations? The court itself remarked, “We would have appreciated, had that affiant (author of the affidavit) avoided entering into a blame game and would have shown sensitivity towards the patients, it being the paramount object of a welfare state to take care of the health of its citizens.”

PM CARES: Litigations and Revelations

SabrangIndia has been tracing the various claims made by officials, authorities and the Fund website itself, as well as the various litigations surrounding it.

An RTI application seeking the trust deed of the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) fund elicited a response from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) stating that the trust fund is not a public authority. The RTI application was filed by Harsha Kandukuri, a student of LLM at Azim Premji University had sought copies of the trust deed and all government orders, circulars and notifications related to its creation and functioning.

The Fund has been the subject of several court cases. A petition at the Delhi High Court seeks to bring PM CARES under the ambit of the Right to Information Act (RTI Act) so that all the information such as amount collected, utilised can be readily available for the public at large. Another petition at Delhi High Court has challenged the rejection of information on PM CARES fund by the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) in response to an RTI application.

In May 2020, a petition was filed before the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court seeking an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) into the PMCARES Fund. In June, a public Interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions that the Centre transfers all contributions of the PM CARES Fund to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) and that it formulates a National Plan as per the Disaster Management Act. This petition was dismissed by the SC in August.

On December 17, 2020, RTI activist Saket Gokhale wrote to Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla seeking prosecution sanction to initiate proceedings against Pradeep Kumar Srivastava who is the Under Secretary (Funds) in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and one of the officials responsible for handling the PM CARES Fund.

Gokhale wanted to initiate action against Srivastava and others handling the fund under provisions of the State Emblem of India (Prohibition of Improper Use) Act, 2005. Gokhale’s letter quotes from the trust deed of PM CARES fund that says, “This trust is not created under the Constitution of India or by any law made by Parliament or by any State Legislature.” It adds, “There is no control of either the Central Government or any State Government/s, either direct or indirect in functioning of the Trust in any matter whatsoever.” This passage is what Gokhale used as the basis for challenging the usage of the national emblem that as per law may only be used by official government entities for official government purposes.

In May 2021, Gokhale also filed an Intervention Application (IA) before the Supreme Court asking for the PM CARES Fund to be made a respondent in the suo motu case being heard by the court on relief efforts related to Covid-19.

Related:

Activist moves SC to include PM CARES Fund as respondent in Covid case
Is the PMCARES Fund using the national emblem illegally?
Plea in Bombay HC seeks CAG audit of PM CARES fund  
Plea in SC demanding transfer of funds from PM CARES to NDRF
Appellate Authority also says PM CARES not public authority
PM CARES not a Public Authority says PMO, in response to RTI query

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In what the Prime Minister’s office calls a historic pro-farmer decision, the Centre on May 19, 2021 decided to increase the subsidy for Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertiliser from Rs. 500 per bag to Rs. 1200 per bag, an increase of 140 percent. The hike in fertilizer prices had sparked outrage among farmers.  Earlier, the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) mentioned how the DAP is a primary fertilizer during sowing of different Kharif crops like paddy, cotton, groundnut, etc. The government now appears to have bowed down to pressure from farmers’ groups.

During a high-level meeting, Union Ministers discussed the rising fertilizer prices affected by the internationally rising prices of phosphoric acid, ammonia, etc.

“Despite the rise in international market prices of DAP, it has been decided to continue selling it at the older price of Rs.1200 and the central government has decided to bear all the burden of price hike. The amount of subsidy per bag has never been increased so much at once,” said the PMO.

Annually, the central government spends about Rs 80,000 crore on subsidies for chemical fertilisers. The recent decision will result in an additional cost of Rs. 14,775 crore. However, the DAP fertilizer is also one of the most crucial manure for farmers.

Last year, the actual price of the fertiliser was Rs 1,700 per bag with a government subsidy of Rs. 500 per bag. However, international prices of phosphoric acid, ammonia etc. used in DAP increased by 60 percent to 70 percent. Thus, the actual price of a DAP bag is Rs. 2,400 that can now be reduced to Rs. 1,200 per bag.

“This is the second major decision in the farmers’ interest, after directly transferring Rs. 20,667 crore in Farmers’ account under PM-KISAN on the day of Akshay Tritiya,” said the PMO.

Related:

Peasantry to assemble on May 26, SKM calls for ‘Black Day’ across India!
Fertiliser prices go through the roof, AIKS demands roll-back
Delhi: FIRs against farmers resume as Assembly election vote counting concludes!
Farmers appeal to police to open Delhi border roads in face of Covid-crisis

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As India draws closer to the end of the 4th phase of the coronavirus lockdown, over 100 migrants have lost their lives trying to reach home to their native villages. While some lost their lives due to hunger and exhaustion as they walked thousands of kilometers to reach home, others died battling the harsh weather and in accidents. When the Centre realized that they had left the most vulnerable faction of society out of the fold of care and benefits, it was too late. Trains and buses were arranged for their travel back home, but the execution of the operations was utterly haphazard with migrants being fleeced of whatever little money they had when they were asked to pay train and bus fares. The issue still persists, with rumours of travel schedules being spread and trains missing official routes.

In light of this, Aajeevika Bureau, an organization with a mission to provide lasting solutions to economic and socio-legal problems of migrant workers, and Working Peoples’ Charter, wrote to the Prime Minister of India, appealing that the Government of India, use the expertise of its central forces to transport millions of inter-state migrants to their homes.

The organizations which began an online petition, garnered over 4,000 signatures, with eminent signatories being Prof. Abhijit Sen – former member Planning Commission GOI, Swami Agnivesh – social activist, Prof. Vimal Thorat – Dalit writer and activist, Justices (retd) Janardhan Sahai and Het Singh – former judges Allahabad High Court, Syeda Hameed – former member Planning Commission and Reema Nanavati among other scholars, labour activists, civil servants and other concerned citizens.

The organizations state that as per reliable sources consulted by them, as many as 667 non-COVID deaths have occurred across the country. 205 of these have occurred among migrant workers en route on foot, and 114 due to starvation and financial distress. This is why, the organizations say that there is an acute need why the government should rope in the central forces and facilities to help with the transportation of migrants.

First, the central forces are equipped to deal with all natural disasters. The National Disaster Management Act has been invoked to implement emergency measures during the lockdown. Migrants on route have faced a threat to life and livelihood. The deployment of central forces and their facilities across the country can help in the mitigation of several challenges and aid the state and Centre in managing the crisis.

Second, the provision of Shramik Special trains has been inadequate – over 2,000 trains have carried around 300,000 migrant workers back home which is only 30 percent of the total population. Citing ground reports, the organizations say that 4 to 6 million workers would need to return to Uttar Pradesh alone. Seeing these numbers, it is apparent that the people are too many and the trains too few, plus marred with extreme lack of coordination and mismanagement like migrants being asked to pay exorbitant fares, delays in arrivals, cancellations and unavailability of food on long routes. Central forces can be roped in to manage schedules and routes effectively apart from making sure that migrants get all the facilities for sustenance on their way home.

Third, assisting states by providing financial support for transportation and rehabilitation of migrants upon arrival. In this, the facilities and resources of the central forces can provide a crucial buffer to states.

The appeal by Aajeevika Bureau and Working Peoples’ Charter says that there has been a stark difference in the Centre’s treatment of migrants and of those who are stranded abroad. It has observed that the procedures to bring back those who were stranded abroad were extremely streamlined and the central forces were used in executing the transport of these persons from stranded in foreign countries to India.

Both the appealing organizations believe that the logical acumen of the central forces and their facilities will aid the safe passage of migrants. Their infrastructure can offer the much needed-emergency transit support and medical help the migrants desperately need. They also say that a mission similar to Vande Bharat which helped Indians across the globe to return to India during the pandemic, can be mirrored to help the migrants safely return home.

Please view the appeal photos here:

Related:

Karnataka refuses entry to migrants from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu
Will the coronavirus be put on fast track when the special passenger trains start running?

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Mumbai: The Prime Minister’s Office has said that it does not maintain expense records of the prime minister’s domestic trips, PTI reported on Thursday.
 
Replying to a Right to Information plea by Mumbai based RTI activist Anil Galgali, Praveen Kumar, Under Secretary in the PMO and Central Public Information Officer, said that information about the prime minister’s domestic visits do not come under the purview of any one authority as there are different organisers for the various trips.
 
Galgali had sought details about international and domestic visits by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his council of ministers since 2014, when the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power.
 
Kumar also replied that the prime minister’s tours related to the poll campaigns are not official ones and the PMO does not have to incur any expenditure on these visits and therefore, details cannot be provided.
 
According to election laws, state machinery cannot be used for campaigning purposes.
 
With regard to expenses on foreign trips, Kumar said Galgali can find the information on the prime minister’s official website. On details of the Union ministers’ visits, the PMO sent Galgali’s query to Ministry of Home Affairs.
 
The prime minister’s website says that his domestic visits are paid for by the Ministry of Defence. On foreign visits, the website lists out 49 trips since June 2014 and the expenses incurred on chartered flights for each. According to the PMO website, Modi had made 49 foreign trips since May 2014 till 22 February, 2019.
 
According to a News18 analysis of the prime minister’s travel information between May 2014 and March this year, Modi had made 328 domestic trips.

The cost of his chartered flight, hotline and aircraft maintenance charges for the foreign trips, as per the official data, come to Rs 2021.59 crore, the report said. The focus of Modi’s domestic visit travels have been states that send most MPs to the Lok Sabha — Uttar Pradesh (66 times) followed by Gujarat (38 times), Maharashtra (29 times), Bihar and Madhya Pradesh (20 times each) the report found.
 
In February, Scroll.in had analysed Modi’s domestic visits from January 2019. It found that he had made 27 trips in 42 days, covering 18 states and union territories. “On many trips, he combined official work with campaign meetings of the Bharatiya Janata Party,” the report said.
 
Modi has recently visited several states including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir to address poll rallies.
 
According to the PMO website, the expenses on domestic visits of the prime minister are met out of the budget of Ministry of Defence, while the expenses on foreign tours of the prime minister are met out of the budget head “Cabinet Ministers Maintenance of PM’s aircraft Other charges”.
 

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He claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bhide had good relations.

“Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had assured on the arrest since an FIR had been registered. But when we inquired, we learnt the message had come from the Prime Minister’s Office not to arrest Bhide or take action against him,” Ambedkar told the media here.

“Modi had worn saffron turban during his first speech from the Red Fort on Bhide’s advice. Modi praised him in an event. This is the relation.”

He warned that in case there is no response from the government, his organisation will take the issue across the country.

The Dalit leader said Bhide had not even filed any application for interim bail since he was quite sure that the PMO was protecting him.

Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of the Indian Constitution’s chief architect Dr B.R. Ambedkar, demanded that Bhide and another pro-Hindutva leader Milind Ekbote be arrested immediately for the Bhima-Koregaon violence.

“Unscrutinised and loose” organisations in the Hindu fold had become a threat to society and the nation, said Prakash Ambedkar, chief of the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh.

He said such organisations had become a parallel to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its existence was virtually in danger. “They are basically challenging the existence of the RSS,” he said.

“These unscrutinised organisations are dictating terms and so the government is hesitant to take action against them,” Ambedkar said.

“They are declaring themselves above the law. That is what (Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founder) Hafiz Saeed is doing in Pakistan: He has positioned himself in such a way that the Pakistan government cannot touch him even when international forces are asking for action. We will not like to have another Hafiz Saeed in India,” he said.

“The RSS had stated that relations with Bhide were severed seven years ago and with Ekbote some eight years ago,” he said.

Clashes broke out on January 1 in Bhima-Koregaon and surrounding areas in Maharashtra during celebrations of the Battle of Bhima-Koregaon, after some people carrying saffron flags pelted cars going towards the village with stones.

The violence spread to Mumbai and other parts of the state on January 2 and January 3, with protesters calling for a bandh across Maharashtra.

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

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Shockingly, according to the CIC, the highest proportion of RTI applications was rejected not under the permissible exemptions under the RTI Act such as Sections 8, 9, 11 or 24 but under the mysterious category of "others". At 43% rejections recorded under this category, more than 4 out of every 10 RTI applications rejected were for reasons other than those permitted by the RTI Act. The Prime Minister's Office is one of the PAs that employed this device very frequently (see ministry-wise findings here).
 
The Central Information Commission(CIC)’s Annual Report  on the implementation of The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) may be read on its website.
 
RTI Trends of select constitutional authorities and Ministries
The Excel sheet prepared by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative for the tabulated data from 2005 to 2016 for these select constitutional authorities and Ministries reveals the following trends:
 
1) While the President's Secretariat received only 123 more RTIs in 2015-16 as compared to the previous year the proportion of rejection plummeted from 9.30% to 1.2% in 2015-16. This appears to be a very significant positive trend indicating higher proportion of information disclosure.
 
2) In 2015-16 the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) reported a rejection rate of 20.10% of the RTIs received. This is a significant drop from 22.10% in 2014-15. However only 7 RTI applications were rejected by the PMO invoking Section 8. A whopping 2,227 RTIs were rejected in the "Others" category. However rejections in this category were much higher at 2,781 in 2014-15. This declining but nevertheless worrisome trend requires a more in-depth study.
 
3) The proportion of rejection of RTIs by the Supreme Court fell to 21.1% in 2015-16 while it received only 6 more RTIs as compared to the previous year. The proportion of rejections by the Delhi High Court also registered a fall of more than 1% in 2015-16 even tough the number of RTI received went up by 127.
 
4) While the number of RTIs received by the Comptroller and Auditor General fell to 716 in 2015-16 from 796 the previous year, the proportion of rejection zoomed to 17.2% from 6.3% reported the previous year. This alarming increase requires in-depth study.
 
5) The proportion of rejection of RTIs by the Election Commission of India has remained at steady state at 0.1% despite receiving 539 fewer RTIs in 2015-16.
 
6) The Cabinet Secretariat also witnessed a jump in the proportion of rejections from 4.30% to 6.65% in 2015-16 although it received only 73 more RTIs. 
 
7) The Ministry of Personnel and Training reported a significant decline in the proportion of rejections at 3.4% in 2015-16 as compared to 9.4% during the previous year even though it reported receiving 9,000 more RTIs in 2015-16. This appears to be a positive trend.
 
8) Although Delhi Police received 648 more RTIs in 2015-16, the proportion of rejection fell slightly by 0.4% in 2015-16.
 
9) Among key Ministries, the proportion of rejection in the Ministry of Defence fell significantly to 11.5% in 2015-16 as compared to 15.90% the previous year. In the Ministry of Finance which has 212 PAs reporting (banks and tax authorities), the proportion of rejection fell to 18.30% in 2015-16 as compared with the 20.20% rejection rate the previous year. The Ministry of External Affairs also reported a fall in the proportion of rejection at 5.74% in 2015-16 as compared to the 7% rejection rate reported the previous year. However, the proportion of rejection in the Home Ministry increased slightly by 0.1% in 2015-16 even though it received 1,143 more RTIs in 2015-16. 
 
 
7) The CIC reports that it imposed penalties to the tune of Rs. 10.52 lakhs out of which Rs. 9.41 lakhs was paid up by the PIOs. Penalties worth Rs. 1.25 lakhs imposed in various cases have been stayed by various High Courts.
 
8) The CIC has reported that the amount of fees and penalties reported by the PAs has increased by 12.31% in 2015-16. However if the amount of penalty imposed is reduced from this figure, the amount of fees collected by various PAs has actually come down from Rs. 1.14 crores in 2014-15 to Rs. 1.07 crores in 2016-17. This trend seems to be at variance with the reduction in the proportion of rejections. This is because, if more people received information then logic dictates that the proportion of fees collected ought to have gone up. This would have to be the case unless the PAs have started the practice of giving information free of charge to RTI applicants. This new trend requires deeper examination.
 
9) The number of Public Authorities registering with the CIC for submitting their RTI statistics is 1,903 – much lower than the highest figure of 2,333 registered in 2012-13. More than 400 public authorities did not register with the CIC despite its perseverant efforts in 2015-16. However, the AR states that reporting compliance from amongst the registered public authorities is the highest during the last 12 years at more than 94%. This is a good sign. However, the report does not throw light on the names of public authorities that did not register with the CIC. This could have been done by comparing with the data from 2012-13.
 
10) The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation and Ministry Overseas Indian Affairs have not reported their RTI statistics despite registering with the CIC. Only 33% of the public authorities from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways reported their RTI Stats to the CIC. However compliance has been between 60-100% in a large number of Ministries and Departments that have registered with the CIC.

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Photo courtesy: the hindu
 

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The Dhamma Chetana Yatra across Uttar Pradesh, led by a Buddhist monk, is being monitored directly by the Prime Minister’s Office.

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The recent High Level meeting in Delhi chaired by the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Nripendra Mishra and attended by the Chief Secretaries of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra on May 6 was scheduled to deal with issues and fallout vis a vis the Sardar Sarovar Project. The meeting itself and its outcome reveals the deep sense of apathy and indifference of the present regime(s) –Central and respective State governments– to the plight of the thousands internally displaced persons (IDPs) and project-affected from the Narmada valley.

The NAPM (National Alliance of People’s Movements) in a detailed analysis issued from Badwani in Madhya Pradesh (MP) has said that while the state governments of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have been directed to expedite Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) process for the IDPs, the government of Gujarat (GOG), in what is believed to be a public relations exercise prior to the assembly polls due in that state in 2017, is desperate to give a favourable spin to its oft-exposed and repeated claim that the completion of the dam would immensely increase the irrigation potential within the state. The dry and arid regions of Kutch and Saurashtra expose this claim. The GOG is under additional pressure due to the simmering Patidar agitation in the state.

The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) has consistently reiterated that this alleged “irrigation benefit” has been directed only towards industries in the state. It appears that this trend is set to continue under the current neo-liberal regime characteristic of the infallible belief in ‘growth without limits’.

All the state governments involved in this 35 year old protest and attendant conflict have, according to the NBA, made repeated and unsubstantiated claims which include the claim that there has been a complete rehabilitation of the Projected Affected Persons. Consistently the NBA has countered these with documented on ground evidence. These have been validated by official inquiries including in the ongoing proceedings infront of GRA or the numbers (of corruption) unearthed by the Jha Commsssion. The struggle led by the NBA has been fought on several fronts, including within the courts: the truncated successes have in a sense exposed the laxity with which offending state governments are viewed and treated by even the judiciary.
The NBA has said, with documentation to back their claim, that not less than 40,000 families in Madhya Pradesh will to face the threat of watery grave this Monsoon. “Faced with this impending human tragedy, how does one counter the Chief Secretary of a state who reports ‘compliance’ and merely demands 350 crore rupeers for rehabilitation’ asks NBA?

In the recent meeting under the direct supervision with a highly placed official of the PMO, the Chief Secretary of Gujarat is reported to have claimed that “Maharashtra has only around 300 families to be resettled while MP needs to settle more – around 1200 families”; numbers which the NBA insists are nowhere even close to the actual figures.

For instance, in Maharashtra alone, there are about 791 declared families; a figure which was arrived at following jointly prepared report after a thorough check up of all documents in the Collectors office by both, activists from the NBA and the Collectors’ men over several months in 2015. This figure does not include the 300-400 yet to be declared project affected families (PAFs) who are currently at the mercy of the Grievance Redressal Authority (GRA) chaired by a retired High Court judge, in the same state.

The State’s brute force and its unyielding arrogance asserts itself blatantly, particularly so under the current Central Government’s disposition. The effort is nothing but a facade to cover decades of ‘destruction’ in the name of ‘development’ that seeks to hide, under a veil, the inhuman treatment meted out to the people affected by this project!

Such a falsehood, unprecedented in history, needs to be countered not before the Courts of justice but in people’s court in which about 40,000 families, communities within the submergence area need support of all those who are courageous to challenge the present paradigm of development.

[ The NBA document was authored by Devram Kanera, Kamla Yadav, Gokhru Bhilala, Kailash Awasya, Bhagirath Dhangar, Mohan Patidar, Kailash Yadav, Mudubhai Machhwara, Devisingh Tomar, Yogini Khanolkar, Noorji Vasave, Chetan Salve, Jiku Tadvi, Pemal Behan, Ramesh Prajapati, Sanovar B Mansoori, Lokesh Patidar, Shyama Behan, Rahul Yadav, Mukesh Bhagoriya, Khema Bhilala, Medha Patkar]

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