Indien: Proteste der NBA

Continuing protest actions

Indefinite fast for the rehabilitation of the Man dam affected
people and against state terror begins at Bhopal
Adivasis [ = indigenous peoples ] face the prospect of death through thirst as State
government destroys all water sources

Intensifying the struggle of the Man dam affected adivasis,
sitting on dharna [ sit-in ] in Bhopal for the last seven days four people
began indefinite fast from today. These several hundred Man dam
affected adivasis have been agitating against the use of state
terror and the illegal and inhuman attempts of the state
government to evict them and to inundate their villages without
having first rehabilitated them. ...
At the beginning of the dharna, those who have embarked on the
indefinite fast expressed their firm resolve that they would fast
until the livelihood questions of thousands of adivasis affected
by the Man dam are met, even if they have to endanger or lose
their lives in the process.

It may be noted that all 17 villages affected by the Man dam, one
of the thirty large dams in the Narmada valley, are slated for
submergence this monsoon. Yet, despite the fact that the
rehabilitation policy of the state government for the oustees of
the Narmada Projects deems that the oustees must be rehabilitated
with irrigated land in lieu of the land that will be going under
submergence, the 5-6000 adivasi people who will be affected by
this Project this year have not been thus rehabilitated.

The affected adivasis have organized themselves and have been
struggling for their rehabilitation and their rights for the last
five years. As a result, where the state government was compelled
to blast out a portion of the dam in the beginning of the monsoon
of 2001 in order to prevent submergence without rehabilitation,
they were also compelled to announce a new financial package for
the Man dam oustees in March- April of 2002. However, although the
rehabilitation policy stipulates irrigated land for
rehabilitation, the valuation of the special rehabilitation grant
done by the government is based on the price of unirrigated lands.
Moreover, the basis of the valuation is the cost of unirrigated
lands in the year 1997-98, where as it is now in 2002-2003 that
the people will have to actually look for lands. Clearly thus the
new financial package and the special rehabilitation grant
announced by the government is woefully inadequate and there is no
possibility of enabling the oustees to get land with the help of
this grant. It may also be noted that while the policy clearly
states that every oustee has to provided a minimum of 2 hectares
of land, even if he/she is losing less than that in order to
ensure a minimum viable unit of cultivation, the special
rehabilitation grant does not provide for it.

The oustees have even identified some large chunks of agricultural
land for themselves, on which they are willing to resettle. Their
demand to the government is that these lands should be developed
with irrigation facilities, and should be allotted to them
immediately. While on one hand, the state government has totally
failed in providing agricultural lands to the oustees, it has
embarked on a reign of terror, in the last one week, in order to
force the adivasis to flee without any rehabilitation. Since the
last one week, government officials along with large posses of
armed police and forest contractors have been roaming the area and
spreading terror by abusing, intimidating and threatening to fire
on the adivasis, if they resist. They have cut down large number
of trees in the villages, and have in the last one week bulldozed
and razed to rubble - 4 primary schools, 2 middle schools, 2
storehouses and 1 heath center in the area. The officials have
also severed all electricity connections in the affected
villages.

However the pinnacle of inhumanity by the Madhya Pradesh
government has been the extraction, removal and bulldozing of all
hand pumps in the affected villages in the area on the 16th and
17th of May. At the heat of summer, as the temperature in the
districts of Western Madhya Pradesh is soaring to 47- 48degree
centigrade, with the Man river completely dry , removal of all
hand pumps means that the adivasis living in these villages as
well as their cattle are likely to physically die of thirst. In
some villages , where villagers have had to take recourse to water
>from disused wells to quench their thirst despite the fact that
it is contaminated, the officials have warned them that they will
fill these wells as well as tear down their houses from the 23rd
of May. There is a tradition that even in a state of war, the
water supplies of the enemy forces cannot be cut off.
Unfortunately, the democratically elected government of Madhya
Pradesh has thought nothing of cutting off the water supplies of
nearly 5000 adivasis and exposing them to possible death through
thirst. The cutting off of all life supplies, including water to
adivasi communities is a complete reversal of all civilized
practice and is unacceptable. The district administration has been
candid about its intentions when questioned about this action,
that it is only through such action that they can hope to oust the
affected people. However the affected people have refused to flee,
are staying in their villages , facing and confronting this state
terror, and have asserted that not only would they not move in the
face of this state terror, but more that they will be willing to
face even the rising waters and submergence in the monsoon, unless
they are rehabilitated.

It against this state sponsored terror and for the early
rehabilitation of the affected people, on the lands that they have
identified, that four people are commencing their indefinite fast
today. The concrete demands are : That first and foremost, the
water and electricity supplies of these villages must be
immediately restored and tree cutting must stop. That all affected
people be immediately rehabilitated with irrigated lands and
community facilities as per policy. That even those losing less
than 2 hectares be rehabilitated with a minimum of 2 hectares as
stipulated in the policy. That if the rehabilitation is not
effected before monsoon sets in, the dam must be broken in order
to prevent submergence of the affected families without their
rehabilitation. That the cut off date for all adult sons and
daughters be extended to June 2002, at the time of submergence, as
had been done in the case of the Bargi dam oustees, and that they
should be given their rights of rehabilitation. That all those
whose houses, wells and trees have not been enumerated should be
included. That all state sponsored repression in the villages must
immediately stop and that police force must be immediately
removed, and the responsible officials punished.

The Narmada Bachao Andolan also takes strong exception to the
threats of the state officials that their next measure will be to
bull dozes the houses of the adivasis. It warns the state
government that enough is enough and that if it continues to
undertake repressive measures in the area and breaks the house of
even a single adivasi, the Man dam affected adivasis will travel
all over the state and the country to expose the anti-adivasi,
anti-people character of the Digvijay Singh government in Madhya
Pradesh as revealed in the Narmada valley and in the rest of the
state.

The Narmada Bachao Andolan also condemns the recent permission
that has been given to increase the height of the Sardar Sarovar
dam to 95 m, which will cause the uprootment of thousands of
adivasis without any rehabilitation. Most of these families are
>from Madhya Pradesh. However, the Madhya Pradesh government has
resorted to differentiating between temporary and permanent
submergence, in open violation of the NWDT Award, in order to
consent to this submergence. The Narmada Bachao Andolan condemns
this anti-adivasi, anti-people and inhuman decision and demands
that all concerned governments review this decision immediately,
stopping all construction on the Sardar Sarovar.

Ram Kuwar Alok Agarwal
Village Khedi Narmada Bachao Andolan