Indien: Repression gegen Anti -Staudamm AktivistInnen

Police reign of terror in Man dam affected villages in Dhar

Electricity cut off, hand pumps extracted, Five schools bulldozed

The police and administration let loose a reign of terror in the Man dam
affected villages of Dhar yesterday as the officials of the local
administration and those of the Narmada Valley Development Department
accompanied by several trucks of armed police force roamed through Khedi
Balwadi, Khanpura, Rehtiaon, Kacchauda, Gadhagahat, Badlipura the villages of
this area, extracting hand pumps, seizing and dismantling transformers,
cutting of the electricity in all villages except two, cutting down trees and
bulldozing five primary and medium schools in the area.

Even as 150 adivasis from the Man area are today on the third day of the
dharna, raising questions as to why they have not received agricultural land
and rehabilitation till now although submergence is a mere three weeks away,
on the other hand, the administration has let loose a reign of terror in order
to break the unity of the adivasis and compell them to flee without any
rehabilitation whatsoever. The Narmada Bachao Andolan condemns this atmosphere
of terror being created by the police and administration and demands that the
police force must be immediately removed from the villages and that the
affected people must immediately be rehabilitated as a community along with
irrigated agricultural lands of their choice within fifteen days.

It may be known that the Man Project is one of the thirty large dams in the
Narmada valley. This dam will be completed this year and as per the gazette
notification of the state government, the lands, homes and livelihoods of over
5000 Bhil and Bhilala adivasis living in the 17 villages in this area will be
completely submerged. There are only three weeks to submergence yet nobody has
been given agricultural land and rehabilitated. When the waters will come,
then these people will have no place to go to except the streets of Indore and
Bhopal. This is inhuman and is a complete violation of their legal and human
rights.

In the last week, the administration had come to the area with a large
contingent of police in order to cut down the trees but the affected people
had gathered together to stop them. Even yesterday, faced with police and
government intention to cut down the trees, the people resisted and even the
children climbed and clung to the trees, but they were roughly picked up and
thrown off by the police. Trees are being cut down in four villages as of now.

Five primary school buildings were demolished in Villages Kachaada, Khanpura,
Rehtiaon, Badlipura and one middle school in Kachhauda. Two pucca storehouses
were also demolished in Village Kacchauda yesterday. Seven hand pumps that met
the water needs of Villages Khedi, Khanpura, Rehtiaon, Gadhghat and Badlipura
were extracted and taken a way by the administration. This morning, a school
building was demolished in Khedi Balwadi and a handpump extracted. Apart from
this transformers belonging to all seventeen villages barring two were also
taken down and away. As per information when the people of Khanpura resisted
this, the police took recourse to a lathi charge. Armed police is roaming the
area and spreading terror at the instance of the state government.

The people of the Man Project area and the Narmada Bachao Andolan clearly
demand that the people of the area should be rehabilitated as a community with
irrigated agricultural land, or that the dam should be broken in order to
minimize submergence. They also demand that the police presence must be
immediately removed from the area, that all tree felling must be immediately
stopped. The NBA demands that the government must continue to run schools in
these villages, that hand pumps must be re established, and electricity must
continue to be given to these villages.

Many significant people‚s organizations, trade unions and cultural fronts of
Bhopal sent a letter to the Chief Minister today in protest against the
happenings in the Man area. They urged the a government that makes claims to
good governance must respect and ensure the legal entitlements and rights of
the affected adivasis and immediately put a stop to such anti- people actions
on part of the state. They asked the state government to ensure that there is
no police presence in these villages, and that the demand of the people to be
rehabilitated before the monsoon must be met. The signatories to this letter
included Shri Pramod Pradhan, CITU, Shei Anand Pande, AITUC, Asha Mishra of
the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti, Jabbarbhai of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog
Sanghathan, Balram Gumasta of Janwadi Lekhak Sangh, Ramesh Sharma of Ekta
Parishad, Shri Kishor Umrekar of Tulika Samwad, and others.


Bondri bai, Village Khanpura
Vesti bai, Village Khedi
Chittaroopa Palit

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