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To Us: Displaced people block the visiting Union ministers’
car in the valley
Photo Anurag Singh |
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There is no rehabilitation
in the villages of Piplud, Alwada, Khaparkheda, Kulig, Gongsa
and Dhajara. Indeed,
26 villages of Alipur have
no rehabilitation sites |
The BJP-led Madhya
Pradesh government’s counsel claimed in the Supreme Court on April
17 that the rehabilitation process is over in the state. This implies
that as far as people displaced (or going to be displaced as the dam
height increases with the rapid construction going on at the site) by
the Sardar Sarovar project is concerned, rehabilitation has been done.
Earlier, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan reportedly claimed that
most project affected families have been rehabilitated and only a few
remain.
This reporter travelled
across the submergence zone and found that the MP government was fudging
on facts on the ground. Also, this was a blatant violation of the Supreme
Court order that the dam height cannot be increased unless the displaced
are given full and proper rehabilitation, with all forms of civic amenities
and public infrastructure, six months before the construction begins
beyond 110 metres. (Also see, Tehelka’s expose last week on the
rehabilitation scam, Anger in the Valley, April 22, 2006).
Is rehabilitation
possible in three months while construction goes on, as the Centre seems
to have claimed despite the group of ministers’ damning report
on the pathetic situation in the valley, categorically stating that
relief and rehabilitation has been largely on paper, especially in Madhya
Pradesh. The officialdom is hyper active in the valley, but it’s
next to impossible to even fulfill a drop of this major promise. Witness
these facts.
There is no basic
rehabilitation in the villages of Piplud, Alwada, Khaparkheda, Kulig,
Gongsa and Dhajara. Indeed, 26 villages of Alipur has no rehabilitation
sites. In Picchodi, 840 families are supposed to be fully rehabilitated
with only 62 plots. Under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 146
families of Chota Badada village were targeted — at 110 metres
height of the dam, 49 families in the submergence zone are yet to be
rehabilitated.
Madhya Pradesh apparently
has insufficient land for compensation, especially fertile land. Where
will it accommodate thousands of families who will be displaced this
monsoon in case the height is further increased? Officials privately
claim that it is virtually impossible to resettle people on the land
for land clause. While cash compensation has created a virtual mafia
of corrupt operators who take cuts and bribes for procuring it for the
farmers, through a maze of bureaucratic hurdles, there is stark absence
of fertile land. In Boregaon village, 7 hectares of land has been allotted
to 370 affected people — even a miracle can’t push this
impossible task of full and proper rehabilitation. (In Delhi in early
April, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil had told a delegation of NBA
supporters, “Where is the land?” This was stated by Professor
Kamal Mitra Chenoy from jnu, who was part of the delegation.)
Modi
hogged the limelight while Congress leaders tried hard, in vain,
to convince the people that the PM should be given credit for
not stopping the dam’s construction |
The Grievance Redressal
Authority (GRA), based in Bhopal, has apparently not even visited the
affected villages since the last many months — some locals say
it’s been six years. There are 5,000 applications pending in the
GRA. “How do you expect poor adivasis to go to Bhopal and present
their case?” says NBA activist, villager Mohanbhai. “Can
they even step into those big offices with confidence? Will they even
listen to a villager’s litany of complaints?”
A letter issued
by the rehabilitation officer of Badwani on January 19, 2006, asking the
villagers to vacate their land, is full of mysterious loopholes. The letter
has annexed a list of names of people affected at 121.92 metres height.
Shambhu, son of Kalya, is listed at serial number 61, who will be affected
at 121.92 metres. Serial number 62 cites the name of Badrilal. However,
another list of the MP government shows the same names on serial numbers
35 and 36. The shocking fact is that both these people have already been
affected when the dam was initially being built, perhaps at 95 metres
height.
The only change
is the serial number in the two lists. These two villagers were apparently
also given land in Gujarat from where they came back, dissatisfied.
This means that the people on the list were not rehabilitated in the
first instance.
Currently, because
of the NBA agitation in Delhi and the Supreme Court’s orders,
hectic activity is going on in the valley. Survey work is going on in
full swing and collectors in many districts have issued instructions
that the surveys must conclude before April 30, and this includes those
villages in the submergence zone at 121.92 metres. However, even while
initial survey work is going on, action taken reports have been issued
in some areas.
The district collector
of Badwani has written a letter that in a meeting with the divisional
commissioner of Indore it has been decided to shift the villagers once
every house is marked and details about the family, its head and adult
sons are covered in 30 villages. The list with which the new numbers
are being marked is six years old and in some families adult sons have
to be added in the compensation package, as per the Narmada tribunal
guidelines which was ratified by the Supreme Court.
The Grievance Redressal
Authority based in Bhopal has apparently not even visited the affected villages for many months |
Even other indicators
seem to reflect that different agencies are having different data and
methodologies. A junior engineer admitted that there were differences
in the ‘contour line’ in the revenue records. Besides, several
hundred cases listed in the GRA records are pending, and until their
claims and grievances are resolved, the final list of oustees can’t
be completed.
The compensatory
forestation programme seems to be a hoax. NBA activist Devram informed
that in Siyali village, in 1993, the forest department dug pits for
plantation, but the trees that were planted didn’t survive. In
Jamani village, plantation was done on private land, but nothing has
survived. While the plantation schemes continue, apparently at huge
cost, even a rare tree can’t be spotted in the area.
Meanwhile, at Ahmedabad,
Narendra Modi not only stole the limelight but also scored a political
point over the ‘pro-dam’ Congress in Gujarat where Assembly
elections are due next year. Modi hijacked the Sardar Sarovar Project
issue and put the Central government in dock. He also ensured that the
BJP government in MP escapes the blame for its miserable failure on
the rehabilitation front. Modi not only branded the UPA regime as anti-Gujarat,
he especially targeted Union Water Resources Minister Saiffuddin Soz,
who is a Kashmiri Muslim.
According to a
senior Congress leader, despite the prime minister’s assurance,
Modi went on a 51-hour fast because he was playing chauvinistic and
vote bank politics. “By going on a fast, he hogged all the limelight
while our leaders tried hard, in vain, to convince the people that it
was the Congress which should take the credit for the prime minister’s
decision not to stop construction after the Narmada Control Authority
Review Committee stand-off,” a Congress mla said.
“Modi has
made the lifeline of Gujarat his political lifeline by enacting the
drama of sitting on a fast. He is trying to take political mileage out
of the Narmada issue,” said a desperate Shankersinh Vaghela. “His
tone and tenor would have been completely different had there been a
Congress government in MP.”
According to analyst
Achyut Yagnik, Modi allowed the dam issue to be politicised so that
he could play the usual chauvinistic politics of Gujarati asmita. “He
jumped on the bandwagon at a time when the issue became politicised
so that he could raise Gujarati sub-nationalism or provincialism. He
became a catalyst of Gujarat provincialism which is most likely to give
him electoral benefits.”
Witness this typical
Modi threat: “Don’t play mischief with Gujarat. We believe
in non- violence, but if Gujarat is provoked, it will not tolerate anyone.
We are ready for any sacrifice.” Indeed, by succumbing to Modi
and not heeding its own ministerial team’s report, the Congress
and UPA regime has given Modi a brand new lease of life.
