Patkar, activists protest against decision to raise Sardar Sarovar dam height

Bhopal: Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) activist Medha Patkar on Thursday demanded to rollback Centre's decision to raise height of Sardar Sarovar dam by 17 meters as activists protested in front of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's residence.

"Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has said that the height of the SSP will be raised further by 17 meters and work on it will begin after festival Diwali. The Central Government claimed that with the decision, nearby land and villages will not be submerged," Patkar told reporters.

The Central government had in June this year gave green waiver to raise height of the Sardar Sarovar dam by 17 meters. Patkar questioned that how is it possible that by raising the height of the dam, adjoining villages and land will not submerge. She also demanded that land should be returned to owners which fall under the submerge region due to the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP).

The NBA leader claimed that by raising the height of the dam by 17 meters, nearly 48,000 families belonging to 245 villages of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat in the adjoining project area will come under the submerged region. Of 48,000 families, a majority of 45,000 belong to Madhya Pradesh, she said.

Besides, large parts of fertile land, forest, houses and trees are also likely to submerge, she said. Patkar said that at present the height of SSP is 122 meters and claimed that so far 50,000 farmers, labourers, fishermen have not been rehabilitated, so how Centre took the decision to raise the height of the dam.

Referring to Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Act, 2013, she said that it was implemented with effect from January 1, 2014, according to it, if a land was acquired for five or more years and compensation was not given to the affected party, then the entire process gets nullified and the land or house owner once again becomes the property owner.

Patkar said that as per the new law, the land acquired by the authorities for five years to 25 years (on papers) but is still occupied by the affected party, then the property cannot be taken away by them.

She said that now the government will have to start the process of land acquisition afresh as per the new law and it has to take consent of village panchayats concerned. The leader demanded from the government to re-register the land in the name of original owners.

She also alleged that in last five years corruption to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore took place in the name of rehabilitation and over 3,000 fake registries were done. A case in this regard is pending in the court.

Large number of affected persons from Barwani, Betul, Burhanpur, Jhabua, Dewas, Khandwa, Khargone, Dhar, Hoshangabad and Alirajpur districts arrived in the state capital to take part in the protest.

History of Andolan

Post-1947, investigations were carried out to evaluate mechanisms for using water from the Narmada River,^[1] which flows into the Arabian Sea after passing through the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat. Due to inter-state differences in implementing schemes and sharing of water, the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal was constituted by the Government of India on 6 October 1969 to adjudicate over the disputes.^[2] This tribunal investigated the matters referred to it and responded after more than 10 years. On 12 December 1979, the decision as given by the tribunal, with all the parties at dispute binding to it, was released by the Indian government.^[2]

As per the tribunal's decision, 30 major, 135 medium, and 3000 small dams, were granted approval for construction including raising the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam.^[2]

In 1985, after hearing about the Sardar Sarovar dam, Medha Patkar and her colleagues visited the project site and noticed that the project work being shelved due to an order by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. The reasons for this was cited as "non-fulfillment of basic environmental conditions and the lack of completion of crucial studies and plans".^[3] What she noticed was that the people who were going to be affected were given no information but for the offer for rehabilitation. Due to this, the villagers had many questions from why their permission was not taken to whether a good assessment on the ensuing destruction was taken. Furthermore, the officials related to the project had no answers to their questions. While World Bank, the financing agency for this project, came into the picture, Patkar approached the Ministry of Environment to seek clarifications. She realized, after seeking answers from the ministry, that the project was not sanctioned at all and wondered as to how funds were even sanctioned by the World Bank. After several studies, they realized that the officials had overlooked the post-project problems.^[4]

Through Patkar's channel of communication between the government and the residents, she provided critiques to the project authorities and the governments involved. At the same time, her group realized that all those displaced were only given compensation for the immediate standing crop and not for displacement and rehabilitation.^[5]

As Patkar remained immersed in the Narmada struggle, she chose to quit her Ph.D. studies and focus entirely on the Narmada activity.^[6] Thereafter, she organized a 36-day solidarity march among the neighboring states of the Narmada valley from Madhya Pradesh to the Sardar Sarovar dam site. She said that the march was "a path symbolizing the long path of struggle (both immediate and long-term) that [they] really had".^[7] The march was resisted by the police, who according to Patkar were "caning the marchers and arresting them and tearing the clothes off women activists".^[7]

Narmada Bachao Andolan on the river of narmada

Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) is a social movement consisting of adivasis, farmers, environmentalists, and human rights activists against a number of large dams being built across the Narmada river. The river flows through the states of Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh in India. Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat is one of the biggest dams on the river and was one of the first focal points of the movement.

Their mode of campaign includes hunger strikes and garnering support from film and art personalities (notably Bollywood actor Aamir Khan). Narmada Bachao Andolan, with its leading spokespersMedha Patkar and Baba Amte, received the Right Livelihood Award in 1991.

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