MARDANA RESOLUTION

We, the people's representatives viz. the Sarpanches, Panches and Janpad representatives of the villages affected by the Maheshwar Project, belonging to Barwah, Maheshwar and Kasravad tehsils of the Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh, who have been recently elected in February, 2000, have gathered together today in Village Mardana, Tehsil Barwah, District Khargone on the 17th of February, 2000, and pass the following resolution unanimously :

That whereas the cost of power produced by the Maheshwar Hydro-Electric Project will be between Rs. 7-10 per kWh at the point of production and may cost the consumer upto Rs.15 per kWh, it is clear to us that this electricity will be outside the reach of any farmer or common city dweller and it will not be possible for us to purchase this power.

That whereas the electricity produced by this Project will only be an average of 1.5 hours per day in the 8 non-monsoon months of the year which means that electricity will not be available when it is most required for the consumers.

That whereas the Madhya Pradesh government is bound to give the private company, S. Kumars, approximately Rs. 500 crores per annum as per the deemed generation clause of the Power Purchase Agreement signed with the company, even when electricity actually produced is less than the deemed amount and even when the electricity is so expensive that it cannot be purchased by anybody.

That whereas according to the Report of the government, to make this payment to the private company, the government will have to stop subsidized electricity to the farmer, stop free single-light connections to the poor, and increase tariffs of electricity, it is clear that homes will be plunged into darkness and the agricultural production of the country will fall and we will become dependent on other countries for food production.

That whereas despite and in clear violation of the land-for-land stipulation of the rehabilitation policy of the Madhya Pradesh government for the oustees of Narmada Projects, and the conditional Environmental Clearance of the Central government, and the Implementation and Rehabilitation agreements between the government and the private company, not a single affected farmer has been given or shown a single square inch of cultivable, irrigable land.

That whereas the pouring of silt on the rocky and barren lands of the village Samraj has only demonstrated the complete failure of the rehabilitation program and now the interests of the people are sought to be disposed of by making attempts to give them cash compensation.

And that whereas the condition of the Environmental clearance of the Central Ministry of Environment and Forests stipulates that the thousands of Kevats, Kahars, Harijans and Mankars as well as other workers who live by sand quarrying, fishing, draw-down agriculture and boat plying in these villages be rehabilitated on the basis of a land package, and the report of the Task Force constituted by the Madhya Pradesh government to review the Project has recommended that the landless families must be rehabilitated with 5 acres of land per family, the Madhya Pradesh government has not modified its Rehabilitation policy to make the relevant inclusion till date nor has it identified such cultivable land for all these landless families.

Whereas thousands of acres of completely irrigated black cotton soils have either been shown as unirrigated in government documents or that the assessment of irrigation has not been done, and whereas there are scores of sand quarries on the banks of the river on which thousands of families are dependent and which yields an annual output of 40 to 50 crores of rupees which have not been assessed, therefore benefits and costs of the Project have been wrongly assessed and if this Project is reassessed properly the costs will be found to be much more than the benefits.

Whereas apart from the 40,000 affected people from the 61 affected villages of the Maheshwar Project, thousands of acres of additional, top quality irrigated lands will become severely waterlogged according to a study done by the Madhya Pradesh government, the Government is hiding this fact and is not recognizing the people of these villages as project affected.

Whereas the Task Force constituted by the Madhya Pradesh government itself studied the whole question for 8 months and came to the conclusion that unless a fresh cost-benefit analysis is undertaken which re-establishes the economic viability of the Project, and until the real possibility of rehabilitation based on the actual availability and identification of cultivable land and the principle of community resettlement, land for land as well as land to the landless is established through the creation of a comprehensive rehabilitation plan, all work on the dam must be stopped. Yet the Madhya Pradesh government has ignored these recommendations because it was clear that in a reworking of the cost-benefit analysis the Project would be found to be unviable.

Whereas the investigation team of the Central Ministry of Environment and Forests found and noted in their Report that the open violations of the conditions of the legally binding environmental clearance and that there is no arrangement for the rehabilitation of the people by the Maheshwar dam.

It has become clear to us from all the above that the Maheshwar Hydroelectric Project will not only submerge Nimad and disperse all the communities living in this area for generations but will become the basis of the loot of the common people of the state and this country. This Project will lead to economic enslavement of this country. That is why we demand from all related parties, the state and central government that

1. The Environmental And Techno-economic clearances given by this Project to the government be immediately revoked.
2. Today when it is clear that the Maheshwar Hydroelectric Project is destructive in all aspects and that this Project will not only submerge our area but also be the cause of the loot of the state and the nation, this Project must be immediately scrapped and the alternative energy options detailed in the Report of the Task Force constituted by the Madhya Pradesh government be immediately implemented.

We believe that in a democracy the state will have to abide by the decisions of the people. Work on this dam cannot be continued on the basis of repression, violations of common law, fraud and the misuse of money. All of us, people's representatives, elected by the people, under the aegis of Panchayati Raj, completely oppose this Project and extend our full support to the struggle of the people of this area against this dam.

NOTE:

1. Pipalgon and Ratanpur villages will be severely waterlogged due to the Maheshwar Project.
2. The panchayats which have several submergence villages under them are as follows: