By IANS
Bhopal : Thousands of villagers affected by the Omkareshwar and Indira Sagar dams in Madhya Pradesh took out a rally here Saturday, shifting their 25-day-old protest from the town of Khandwa to the state capital after failing to get any response from the state government.
"These people who were holding a sit-in at Khandwa for the past 25 days have moved to Bhopal in the hope that the administration will lend an ear to them," said Alok Agarwal of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), the organisation that has been fighting for the rights of the people affected by a series of mega dams on the Narmada river.
"The agitators have resolved to stay in Bhopal in the open till their demands are fulfilled," Agarwal told IANS.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court had Friday restrained the state government from disconnecting water and electricity supply to 25 of the 30 villages threatened with submergence by the Omkareshwar dam waters. The next date for hearing the case is July 24.
"Earlier, the high court had May 18, 2007, directed that the gates of the Omkareshwar dam should not be closed until all the villagers were rehabilitated with agricultural land as per the 1993 Relief & Rehabilitation (R&R) plan of the project and six months breathing time given to them after the completion of R&R," Agarwal said.
However, the state government and the Narmada Hydroelectric Development Corporation (NHDC) filed Special Leave Petitions stating that of the 30 villages affected by the Omkareshwar dam, 25 would not be affected by the rise in water level up to 189 metres, and the remaining five villages were already vacated. On this, the Supreme Court June 11 stayed the May 18 decision of the high court.
"Immediately after the apex court order, the state government started coercive measures like severing electricity and water supply in several villages like Ekhand and Gogalgaon by removing transformers," alleged Agarwal, who brought up the matter before the court Tuesday. He sought a ban on the government measures till the R&R of the dam-affected people.
The demands of the affected people include agricultural land for the cultivators, land for the adult sons and unmarried adult daughters of the cultivators, and land for the landless families.
Meanwhile, water reportedly entered the low-lying villages of the area after the administration closed the sluice and radial gates of the dam for filling the reservoir up to a height of 189 metres following the Supreme Court's June 11 orders.
Majority of 60,000 oustees affected by the two dams were agitating in Khandwa and Omkareshwar under the aegis of the NBA for the past 25 days.
"Two of the five representatives of the oustees who have been fasting for 22 days at Khandwa have also moved to Bhopal while continuing their fasting," Agarwal told IANS.
He said that many of the dam-affected people's homes are already flooded in the rains. More than 12,000 complaints have been prepared and filed in the last 24 days with the NHDC that is building the dam.
"The government was not following the orders of the Supreme Court and other courts in respect of the R&R of the oustees. Not only has the government ignored the oustees' demand but even their protest in Khandwa was forcefully disrupted by the police on Tuesday," Agarwal alleged.