By Malavika Vartak, IANS
Khandwa : As rising temperatures forced people indoors in early June, Khandwa, a quiet town in Madhya Pradesh, saw huge protests and even bigger rallies against large dams and the all too familiar problem of submergence without rehabilitation.
Since June 4, about 5,000 women and men from the villages affected by the Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar dams have staged a sit-in in Khandwa. Sixteen days ago, on June 6, five activists went on an indefinite hunger strike.
The two dams located upstream of the Sardar Sarovar Project are an integral part of the Narmada Valley Development Plan that envisages 30 large dams, 135 medium dams and 3,000 small dams on the Narmada river.
Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar are considered critical to ensure regulated flows to the Sardar Sarovar Project apart from generating electricity and providing irrigation for Madhya Pradesh. Progress on the dams had been slow till the National Hydroelectric Power Corp (NHPC) entered into a joint venture with the government of Madhya Pradesh to form the Narmada Hydro-Development Corp (NHDC). Since then, dam construction has rolled ahead with little regard for the affected people and their constitutional rights.
The protesters demand land-based rehabilitation of landless families and adult sons and unmarried adult daughters of affected families, and the provision of employment guarantee schemes among other basic services like drinking water at rehabilitation sites.
At the helm of the protests, the Narmada Bachao Andolan has pointed out that land-for-land is integral to the 1989 Government of Madhya Pradesh Rehabilitation Policy for oustees of the Narmada projects.
Further, the Madhya Pradesh High Court judgement of September 2006 has held that adult sons and unmarried adult daughters will be entitled to all available rehabilitation measures. Not one Indira Sagar dam-affected family, however, has been allotted alternative land. Instead, they have been forced to accept a meagre cash compensation for the loss of their lands and livelihoods.
The Indira Sagar Project located at Punasa in Khandwa district is slated to submerge 249 villages and more than 40,000 hectares of prime forestland. In mid 2004, Indira Sagar made news when the thriving 700-year-old town of Harsud was demolished in a heartless operation to make way for the dam.
Three years later, several 'rehabilitated' people in New Harsud, among other resettlement sites, are on the brink of starvation due to poor compensation. Further downstream, the Omkareshwar Project will submerge 5,800 hectares of forestland and 30 villages.
In August 2003, residents of Panthiaji, the first village to be affected by the Omkareshwar dam, were brutally evicted and standing crop was razed to the ground for the inauguration ceremony at the dam site.
Strong-arm tactics to evict people are common in NHPC operations. In the Chamera I project in Himachal Pradesh, affected villagers were not informed about the impoundment and had to run from their homes as the reservoir began to fill up.
In the case of the Koel Karo dam in Jharkhand, another infamous NHPC project, eight adivasis were shot dead in 2001 while peacefully protesting against the dam before construction was halted. To add insult to injury, in a "glittering ceremony" in March 2007, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh awarded NHDC the Gold and Silver National Awards for the Indira Sagar Project for the years 2004-05. The Bronze National Award was given to NHPC for its work in Chamera I.
To make matters worse, in the recent Supreme Court case on the Omkareshwar dam, the Madhya Pradesh government and NHDC stated in their affidavit that several villages, including Gunjari, would not be affected even at the water level of 189 meters. The truth, evidently, is quite different.
On June 16, water entered homes in Gunjari when the reservoir filled up to 185 metres. Needless to say, land acquisition has not been initiated in the village. Further, 115 families have been stranded as Jiroth Phaliya of Kewal Buzurg village has been marooned by the rising waters. Currently, 10 women in Gunjari village are standing in the water as a protest against the unjust submergence.
Meanwhile, the state has refused to engage in any meaningful dialogue on substantive issues with the protestors and in fact has tried to cut off their water supply in a bid to thwart the protests.
As the condition of those on hunger strike deteriorates, even while their resolve strengthens, one can only wonder how long and what exactly it will take to shake the decision makers and power brokers out of their complacency and indifference.
The people of the Narmada valley have been remarkably patient. The Madhya Pradesh government has done little so far to inspire confidence in its ability or will to respond to people's legitimate demands in the ongoing protests. In such a scenario, any bystander can only forecast further disillusionment with the democratic structures of our country, a situation that does not bode well for anyone.
(Malavika Vartak is a New Delhi-based researcher working on displacement and rehabilitation issues. She can be contacted at [email protected])