Image Courtesy: livemint.com

The States of Gujarat and Maharashtra, in addition to the State of Madhya Pradesh, and the inter-State body of Narmada Control Authority, were impleaded through an interim order passed by Justice Ramana and Justice Ajay Rastogi on the September 18, 2019.
 
The affidavits in reply filed by the Union of India and the Narmada Control Authority have rejected, among others, the plea for reducing the water level in the Sardar Sarovar to 122m by keeping the gates open. The affidavits have also claimed that the Narmada Control Authority and its various subgroups, for Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) as well as environment, have already granted all the requisite permissions for filling of the reservoir to FRL in 2017 itself.
 
The State of Gujarat has also contended that the Supreme Court’s order of February, 8, 2017, had directed all the PAFs to vacate the villages by  July 31, 2017 and that this should have been complied with. 
 
The Petitioners, on the other hand, submitted that thousands of families, as indicated in the letter by the Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh dated May 27, 2019, have been residing in 76 villages, and their R&R remains pending.  The said letter stated that about 3000 applications by the claimants are pending, for the land entitlement or 60 lakh rupees package, granted by the Supreme Court itself in its 2017 order. It was also accepted that a number of tasks related to R&R remain pending and the civic amenities as per NWDTA & State policy, such as drinking water, roads, drainage and others, were not in place. 
 
Today, a Bench comprising of Justice N.V. Ramana, Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Krishna Murari heard the Senior Counsel for the Petitioners, Sanjay Parikhji, who pointed out the gravity of submergence affecting human life and livelihood and requested that on account of the fact that R&R has not been completed, the rise in water levels was not in accordance with law and therefore, it should be brought down so that human sufferings are lessened.
 
Senior counsel for the M.P. government, Kapil Sibal sought time to file an affidavit pointing out the status of R&R. He also asserted that the impact of submergence is much more severe than what has been presented. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General, submitted on behalf of the Union and NCA that water level in reservoir has been raised as per the procedure in the award. 
 
The Court, after hearing all the parties, directed the State of Madhya Pradesh to file an affidavit by September 30 and fixed the matter for hearing on 1st October. The Court also drew attention of the Solicitor General to the provision in NWDTA regarding a Review Committee meeting suggested in the interim order and observed that a decision should be taken in the meanwhile. It may be pointed out that the Review Committee comprises of the Chief Ministers of the 4 States- Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan as members, chaired by the Minister for Water Resources of the Union of India. 
 
The present crisis and controversy has arisen because the State of Gujarat wanted to increase the water level to 138.68 m in spite of State of Madhya Pradesh resisting it on the ground that the pending rehabilitation, submergence cannot be done and the R&R of thousands of families still pending. Because of the rise in water level in Sardar Sarovar, 176 villages have been submerged severely impacting their life and livelihood- islands/tapoos have been created, roads have been submerged and communication is severely affected.  
 
Related Articles:
1.      Four CMs must Meet, resolve contentious rehabilitation issue, on Narmada: SC
2.       Narmada valley: SC notice to Gujarat, MP, M’rashtra on submergence sans rehabilitation
 
 

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“We have witnessed about this giant, controversial dam during last 32 years and once again will experience on this special occasion which needs to be dissected and exposed; since the plan of ‘Dedicating the Dam to the Nation’, all the people across the country must know the truth through the response from the people of Narmada Valley that follows-

Serious Questions about Official ‘Misinfromation’
First and the foremost, how has Rupani calculated a period of 56 years since the laying of the foundation stone for today’s Sardar Sarovar Dam? The foundation stone laid by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was not for the Dam of today, it was for a much smaller dam of 162 feet height.

The present dam, a result of the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal Award (NWDTA) is 455 feet i.e. 138.68 meters high, declared by the Tribunal after 10 years long enquiry into the serious conflict among 3 riparian states, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. It was all party (then Jan Sangh and Congress) opposition in Madhya Pradesh that had questioned and challenged through even violent resistance, that got settled as NWDTA is considered to be a decree, i.e. law. 

However, the Dam is still not the country’s highest dam or a world’s second biggest dam, claims made only on the basis of the volume of concrete going into the Dam. It is one of the biggest, no doubt and the decision on the same came in December 1979, the date of the Declaration of the Award (NWDTA), not in 1961.

Even after the Award the work on the same was soon stopped and the clearance to it, following River valley guidelines of 1993 and Environmental Protection Act, 1986, came only in June 1987. The said clearance too was conditional since studies and plans on not less than 8 critical aspects of the project were not conducted nor completed till then. Those included rehabilitation, Flora and Fauna, seismic risks, catchment area treatment, command area development, downstream impacts.

Mr. Rupani obviously hasn’t looked into either data or documents related to each of these, concerning all 3 states with the non-riparian state of Rajasthan and the union of India as monitoring government with certain powers when he refers to the benefits of the Dam, he makes a serious mistake in saying that Maharashtra is to get 56% and Madhya Pradesh, 27% of the electricity to be generated, which is exactly the opposite, indicating the CM’s ignorance.

 There is no mention of the firm confirmed power to be generated and only mentioning the capacity, obviously since the benefit shares are only out of whatever is actually generated and not the planned capacity.
There is no share in water benefit to either Maharashtra or Madhya Pradesh, who are to pay the biggest cost in losing best of land, fresh and most tragically, affecting lakhs of people in 244 villages and 1 township. This is what is not noted in the CM’s statement, as is always forgotten by Gujarat and forgiven by his counter parts in other 2 states.

The scale of irrigation and drinking water supply in Gujarat and Rajasthan is certainly exaggerated, as can be proved, says the statement.

Official statistics on irrigation reveal and show a big failure till date, not because of the stoppage of the Dam work for genuine social, environmental reasons, but mismanagement and manipulations to favour industries at the cost of farmers and drought affected in Gujarat. Even when waters were impounded up to 121.92 meters, Gujarat didn’t take it into the canal network which was left incomplete and has more than 50% balance even today. Whatever it did, was lost to sea via Sabarmati giving light and sound show due to no way to take to fields without canals, nor to be stored!

 This irrigation scandal is fully exposed through a detailed statement by none else but the former chief minister of Gujarat Suresh Mehta. It is less than 3 lakh hectares when at least 8 to 10 lakh was expected at 121.92 meters dam height just because it has no priority for the commercial state!

How many villages in Gujarat is the dam going to supply drinking water? The number changes from para to para in this single statement, from 9000-9663! Remembering the past, let people of Gujarat and Bharat know that the figure has changed from 4200+ to 8000+ and now to 9000+, always including more than 240 barren villages with no habitation to drink the water, even if supplied!

Which are the 131 urban centres to get this benefit, we must know along with how much of their thirst saturated till date? If it was only 0.86 million cubic feet for drinking water, it means out of 1.6 MAF, the share for municipal and industrial water, let there be the latest allocation details coming in from the official sources! People of Gujarat are in the dark about the agreements made with Coca Cola, car industries (to include new Suzuki plant, thanks to the visit by Japanese Premier), Adani’s and Ambani’s projects and all the industrial estates to come up in Gujarat as a part of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor full of investment regions covering 60% of Gujarat with Huge costs to farmers! Who will exhibit the real costs and real benefits & when?

Moreover, it’s an absolutely false contention that Maharashtra is also to be get 37500 hectares of irrigation from Sardar Sarovar Dam. This is the benefit Maharashtra may get out of its own rainfall & water flows in its Narmada catchment, not from the Sardar Sarovar Reservoir. Maharashtra has no benefit of water from the dam after losing 33 adivasi communities.

The biggest lie and unscientific claims is to say that 18 lakh hectares of land in Gujarat will be irrigated, with the inauguration of the project, as Narmada water will flow to over 9000 villages of Gujarat through a canal network. Does the network to that extent, exist today when at least 41000 kms long network to take water to village and fields doesn’t  exist. Thanks to Modi Government in Gujarat that totally ignored this aspect, while merely blaming the opposition, inside and outside the electoral politics for stalling the Dam project.

It’s revealing that even on the eve of the irrigation, neither the CM nor the PM have shown any sensitivity to the huge number of the adivasis, farmers fishworkers and labour who are compelled to sacrifice for the project. They may not have nor the realistic information to be shared with the Nation.

There are about 40000 families still in the submergence area, beyond the game of numbers played by the governments of Madhya Pradesh at times to extent, Maharashtra and the union authorities.

Not just the serious lapses but large-scale corruption and violation of the laws, policies and court judgments up to the apex court, especially in Madhya Pradesh have been totally ignored by even Modi Ji since it’s not congress but his own party – BJP – government in power in Madhya Pradesh. If it was the other, he would not have left any stone unturned, in exposing them. Will he take pains to read Justice Jha Commission report and not bluff but act against the corrupt officials and agents in action even today?

And what about the ex-prime minister’s taking a position against pushing the construction of the Dam without rehabilitation of thousands of families, mandatory under law. Mr. Manmohan Singh had given a written commitment to the Supreme Court on this, on April 17, 2006. Mr. Rupani was not in the picture then, rather if I remember correctly, he was claiming that Gujarat can use its total water share through a pipeline project, without destruction of land, if NRIs support it financially.

Was the stand taken by UPA government, which too had faced our 21 days of fast and 51 hours five star fast by the Prime Minister, anyway illegal or unjust. Mr. Rupani, it’s shameful and not a matter of pride that Mr. Modi took a decision to push the Dam height to 138.68 meters beyond 121.92 meters where it was stayed, within 17 days after coming into Government? 

 He didn’t just ignore his ministers like as Uma Bharti and Mr. Gehlot, both from Madhya Pradesh but also the shockingly dense populations with thousands of houses, prime agriculture and horticulture, a few thousand temples and tens of mosques, a million (at least) trees and the total infrastructure, ages and generations old that is to be submerged or affected at the full height that he is to boast of!

The absolute callousness shown to even the tribal oustees of Gujarat on the path of agitation even today is equally exhibitory of the experience of ours over 32 years. The violation of the supreme court judgement’s on Rehabilitation as well as environmental measures, destruction of ecosystem and natural resources, the loss of human history with pre-history archeological remnants not removed and stored, total neglect of compensatory and preventive environmental works all is to be the result of Modi’s inauguration and celebration which will not be before the Nation, until it all occurs.

The huge cost of Rs 99000 crores for the single project which was never honestly estimated will be a huge burden on the state of Gujarat and the countries exchequer, to be borne mainly for the industries, the capitalists pursuing it at all cost.

The Programme on the September 17, the birthday of PM is seen as the deadline or deathline for thousands and thousands fighting for justice with those sensitive and cautious of false propaganda and farce, beware of flawed developmental claims and model, demand an open public debate.

Or as Amit Shah (rather crudely )said “Gujarat ka Sher kisi sawal ka jawab nahi dega!”.   

Disclaimer: This is a statement issued by the National Alliance of People’s Movements and do not necessarily express the views of Sabrangindia
 
Related Articles:
 

1. URGENT APPEAL: Is the GOI Drowning the Narmada Valley to celebrate Modi’s Birthday?
2. Modi Birthday Celebrations at the Cost of Oustees of Narmada Dam?

The post Whither Truth? Demand Narmada Evacuees, Challenging the CM, Gujarat & PM Modi appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Modi is getting ready to celebrate his birthday at the Sardar Sarovar Dam site in Gujarat on September 17. But how can a birthday be auspicious if no one is sacrificed?

To ensure human and animal sacrifice, water is being released from dams like Indira Sagar upstream on the Narmada river. Water has already started rising.

By the 17th of September the Narmada water at Sardar Saovar will be at an impressive height. You wont be able to spot the drowned bodies of humans and cattle but they will add to the auspicious event and the prayers of the priests will reach heaven so very much faster.

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Narmada Nyay Yatra exposes multiple scams and widespread corrupt practices across Madhya Pradesh Narmada Nyay Yatra resurveyed the entire Valley and was shocked to see the false promises made by Shivraj Singh Chauhan during the Narmada Sewa Yatra. Shivraj’s plantation drive was recorded on Guinness Book of World Records for enormous spends and media highlight, but environmentalists found the idea ridiculous as it was carried out without any scientific planning of the types of plants that would preserve biodiversity. The Narmada Nyay Yatra found most saplings in Pichhodi, Avalda and Bhavti settlements weren’t even alive. Similarly the alcohol ban on Narmada banks as announced failed to be implemented on ground. Whereas the alcohol ban of the villages Pichhodi and Bhavti which was achieved by the women’s struggle still remains successful. Similarly Shivraj’s false claim of banning sand mining on Narmada banks proved fake as protestors themselves found an abandoned sand mafia truck during the rally whose driver had run away seeing the people. Shivraj had spent close to Rs. 1600 crores in the name of Narmada Sewa Yatra earlier this year. The Narmada Nyay Yatra covered 60 villages in a span of 3 days and continued on its fourth day. In Manawar, the village Jalkheda is facing serious submergence issues due to the Man Dam Project on a tributary Man of river Narmada. These families are facing the challenge of flooding from both Narmada and Man rivers. But the state-administration has no idea about these. They have not surveyed the villages and do not even know how many people will be affected by submergence. So the question of rehabilitation is far from implementation. It was also revealed by the Yatra that Dharampuri is not the only town to be affected by the closing of the gates of SP, but even the Maheshwar town including its historic Maheshwar Fort will also be submerged. It was also found out in Kothra and Bada Barda villages that Dalits, fisherpeople, Kewat community and labour colonies were either acquired half-heartedly or were removed from the list of submergence areas or were considered ‘islands’. But the submergence of the year 2013 proves that houses which were submerged during time of dam height of 122 meters, they will surely be affected by the 139 mt. high dam. Similar corrupt practices were exposed in the mismatch of oustee lists. Meanwhile, the M.P. Revenue Department is claiming that their survey is different from Narmada Valley Development Authority survey. They have announced that only 8821 families are in the submergence area. Similarly they have rejected 8000 families who are in the submergence area but because their names are not on NVDA list, they will be considered ineligible. Instead of giving such families 60×90 land plots, the government is giving them only 20×90 or 30×60 plots. Many oustees are forced to shift into tin sheds. Poor people are being coerced into signing false affidavits and given only half of 1/3 of what they deserve in a bid to increase the number of people who the state can claim are already ‘rehabilitated’. The movement is against all these unjust and criminal practices of the state and will fight until justice is achieved.

Narmada Struggle Support Group, Madurai demonstrates in solidarity with Medha Patkar and the people of the Narmada Valley.  D. Gabriele, 28 August 2017 At Bypass Raod, opp. Guru Theater in Madurai, hundreds of participants from 18 organisations came together from 9 AM to 1 PM to protest against the ‘emergency situation’ in the Narmada Valley. Women participated in considerable numbers. The MDMK and the Humanist Party extended support, as well as people from peasant struggles and struggles to save democracy (like anti Methane and anti Hydrocarbon struggles). The emphasis was on implementing the Supreme Court orders in Narmada struggle and Right to Life and Livelihood and ‘Land for Land’ and stopping arbitrary violence on people. Three lawyers dressed up as Supreme Court Judges were sitting on a bench on top of a truck, which gave a good appeal to expand the independence of the judiciary.

Solidarity Event in Ambedkar University, New Delhi engages young students with the realities of 21^st century India.

Titled ‘Damming the Narmada: Development or Dispossession?’, a cultural-political event was organized by School of Liberal Studies and School of Development Studies of Ambedkar University, New Delhi on 1 September 2017 from 2 PM to 6 PM. Preeti Sampat introduced the event with clippings from the documentary ‘Narmada Diary’ directed by Anand Patwardhan in 1995. A photo exhibition ‘SOS: From the archives of NBA’ was curated by Ishita Sharma and Shiv Ahuja along with the launch of a zine (publication). Powerful performance by Nikita Maheshwari riveted the crowd as she created a sense of doom around the creation of big dams. Swati and Akshara collaborated with the audience and everyone sang along from the lines of the iconic Bhagwan Manjhi song ‘Gaon Chodab Bahi’. The event was concluded with a vibrant interaction between students of the university and Madhuresh Kumar from NAPM.

Courtesy: www.narmadaandolan.org

The post Fifty Years & Fighting: A Not So Brief History of the Narmada Bachao Struggle appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Protesting Inadequate Rehabilitation, around 600 NBA activists and people of Narmada Valley along with Medha Patkar got detained from Bhopal and Habibganj Railway station in Bhopal
MP Police detained and kept people at three places, New Central Jail (Gandhinagar, Bhopal), Habibganj and Rest at Bhopal Railway Junction
 
In the early hours of Wednesday,July 19, when protesting villages from the Narmada Valley reached Bhopal, the police detained them without giving any reason and have  taken them to Central Jail, Bhopal. Another 600 Narmada Bachao Andolan Activists and villagers were similarly detained at Bhopal and Habibganj Railway Station. Detainees are reportedly held at at three locations: around 200 people at New Central Jail, Gandhi Nagar, Bhopal; around 300 people at Habibganj, and others at Bhopal Junction.
 
This harsh action of the Madhya Pradesh government is being seen as an attempt to curtail legitmate protests on people demanding their due rehabilitation and raising their voice against the unlawful and unjust submergence. As many as 40,000 families have been denied rehabilitation in the Sardar Sarovar Dam affected region in the Narmada Valley.
 
This is the third time in a month time when police of different states detained the people of Narmada Valley and NBA activists at various places without any reasons.
 
NBA leader Medha Patkar and activists have appealed to citizens to call the police officials of Bhopal and chief minister office to release all the detained activists and people of Narmada Valley to save the constitutional values and their fundamental rights.

The post NBA Activists Detained at 3 Locations: MP appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Nisarpur, one of the villages on the bank of the Narmada facing the threat of submergence, is now on the warpath. With the central and state governments threatening to evict villagers forcibly, sending police officials as 'emmisaries' even as the Narmada authorities are avoiding any dialogue, thousands of women and men have been on the streets every day.

About 100 kilometres from the Gujarat border, not very far from the Narmada river in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh, Nisarpur village is on the warpath. With forcible eviction looming large over the village and government sending police officials to warn people, here, thousands of women and men are on the street every day. Three days back, it was total strike with all shops and activities closed. On Wednesday, the villagers took out a torchlight procession. On Thursday, again, there was a rally and mass meeting, followed by a special gram sabha to pass a resolute against evicting them by closing down the Narmada dam’s 30-odd gates.

Determined to challenge eviction, the big village, where about 3,000 families live, is almost a township. With all the social and public services, shops and markets, it is, however, dependent on agriculture. Traders to artisans, all gain their livelihood, thanks to the village’s agricultural prosperity.

Farmers of the village grow wheat, maize, banana, papaya, cotton, among other crops. The prime agricultural land attached with the village and all the houses of Nisarpur were recorded as affected by the Narmada Dam at levels below 110 meters.

Lands were officially declared acquired in the year 2000, but most of the farmers, potters, fish workers, laborers, and artisans yet to be rehabilitated. Majority of villagers complain extremely poor compensation for houses they have been asked to leave. The compensation is far from sufficient to build new houses at resettlement sites the project affected families (PAFs) have been offered.

The land the PAFs at the resettlement site has being offered has been acquired from 50-odd landholders. On this site, the project affected families (PAFs) if from four other villages — Kothada, Karandia, Raswa, and Rakti – would be resettled. Ironically, 30 of these 50 landlords today are landless!
Nisarpur is just three km away from Narmada river and the well-known Koteshwar temple complex. Within this single village there are some 30 temples and 10 mosques.

Approximately 60% of Nisarpur’s population is poor, yet they have not received alternative livelihood, which ranges from fishing to making bricks at brick kilns. Many of them have not been allocated housing plots and have been cheated by middlemen, who grabbed the documents, especially of widows, and duped them.

Only recently, when complaints were written by activists, one middleman returned a widow’s documents along with Rs 15,000. However, all are not so lucky.
This is not just the case with Nisarpur but also of large number of other villages in the three districts in bordering Narmada. Government officials are visiting each of the villages, telling people to vacate the villages. In order to make their mission successful, they are paying visits to communities as never before. While police and the lower revenue officials are ready for a dialogue, this not the case with higher officials attached with the Narmada project.

Meanwhile, villagers suspect, the recent inter-state meeting of the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) in Delhi on May 17, 2017, would ensure that they are forced out of their village within the next two months, They strongly feel that all this is in violation of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) and Supreme Court orders.
 

Related Articles:
1. 8,000 Dam Effected Families "threatened" with forcible eviction by MP Officials
2. Rally for the Valley SAVE NARMADA, SAVE LIFE!

The post Nisarpur Village Stands Firm, Gram Sabha Passes Resolution Against Forced Eviction appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Narmada Bachao Andolan group, which has been fighting for the villagers, claims that if the Sardar Sarovar is filled to 139 metres, 244 villages in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra will be inundated. This will affect over 45,000 families who have not got yet been fully compensated.

Senior advocate Sanjay Parikh spoke to Communalism Combat and Newsclick on the issue of Sardar Sarovar dam case. He talks about the legal aspects of the case and how the Supreme Court judgements of 1992, 2002 and 2005 have just not been implemented.

After a recent trip to the villages that face submergence, Parikh describes how the villages in the submergence zone are full of life and activity.

The post It’s a Failure of Justice Delivery as SC Directives Breached & 244 Villages Face Submergence: Sanjay Parikh appeared first on SabrangIndia.