Madhya Pradesh government preparing to submerge Dhar tribals
"Contractor's interests are more important to Madhya Pradesh government than
Adivasi's livelihoods"
Exposing completely its callous attitude towards the tribal populations of
the state, the Madhya Pradesh Government has increased the pace of the
work on the spillway section of the Man Project, so that several hundreds
of tribal families will lose their homes and lands to the waters this
monsoon itself. It is noteworthy that the hundreds of tribal families who
the government intends to flush out like rats this monsoon-are yet to be
rehabilitated and will have no where to go when their homes and lands are
submerged. Police is being deployed in large numbers at the dam site and
is also entering the affected villages and are threatening people and
asking them to leave their villages.
The Narmada Bachao Andolan condemns the repressive and completely
unconstitutional and illegal actions of the Madhya Pradesh government and
demands that work on the spillway section of the dam must be immediately
stopped and the affected tribal families must be resettled with
agricultural lands. In the event that the government continues with the
construction, unmindful of the imminent submergence of the tribals, the
affected people will be forced to intensify their struggle for their
rights.
The Man Project is a large dam being built on the Man river and one of the
30 large dams being built in the Narmada valley and will submerge the
lands and homes of several hundreds of tribal families in 17 villages that
include Khedi- Balwadi, Khanpura, Rehtiaon and others. It may be noted
that the Man Project received the legally binding environmental clearance
from the Central Environment Ministry in 1994. The condition of the
clearance was that the affected tribals must be resettled with non- forest
agricultural land. The state government policy for the oustees of the
Narmada Projects that was made in 1987 and firmed in 1992 also required
that the affected people must be resettled with land for land. Despite
this from 1991 to 1994, the state government completely violated the
conditions of the environmental clearance and the provisions of its own
policy and finished the rights of the people with paltry amounts of cash
compensation.
As a result, in 1994, the Appraisal Committee of the Central Environment
Ministry blacklisted the Man Project for complete violation of the
conditions of the environmental clearance. In 1997, when the oustees were
given eviction notices, they organized themselves under the aegis of the
Narmada Bachao Andolan and raised their voices. After a long struggle, in
April –May 1999, the Madhya Pradesh government agreed to constitute a
committee for the rehabilitation of the affected people. This committee
which was constituted under the chairmanship of the Narmada Minister
comprised of the affected people, elected representatives , government
officials and members of the Narmada Bachao Andolan – Shri Rehmat and
Chittaroopa Palit.
The government order of 2nd May, 1999 clearly stated that no construction
work could be carried out that would endanger any affected person whose
rehabilitation had not been done. But despite this clear order, from
October, 2000 onwards the state government began work on the spillway
section of the dam ,thus creating a situation of imminent submeregence of
hundreds of tribal families who are yet to be rehabilitated . The Man
affected tribals then held an impressive rally in Dhar on the 24th of
January this year demanding immediate stoppage of work and rehabilitation
of the affected people . Subsequently after representations to the NVDA
,the work on the spillway section of the dam was stopped by a government
order of 30th January. But on the initiative of the Chief Minister Shri
Digvijay Singh , as per public statement given by local Congress MLA Shri
Karan Singh Pawar, the work was again restarted. It is clear that
contractor’s interests matter more to the Chief Minister than the survival
concerns of the tribals. Knowing the complete lack of rehabilitation of
the Man oustees, the elected representative then contended that most of
the people affected by the Man Project have been rehabilitated in Gujrat,
a statement that is completely untrue and laughable .
It may be noted that the Madhya Pradesh government has showcased the
District of Dhar by publicizing the Gyandoot Yojna – a program to provide
information access to the tribals through the use of computers. It
received the Stockholm Challenge Award for this scheme and this was the
sole entry of the MP government in this year’s Republic day parade in
Delhi. But the reality of the concern and the responsiblity of the state
government towards the tribals of this district is evident by the attempt
of the government to uproot the tribals with the use of police and water.
The Narmada Bachao Andolan reiterates its condemnation of the repressive
and callous attitude of the state government , and demands that all work
on the spillway section of the dam should be stopped , an emergency
meeting of the Rehabilitation Committee should be held and the work of the
rehabilitatoion of the affected tribals should be started in earnest. The
Narmada Bachao Andolan and the affected people have already informed and
petitioned the Central Ministry of Environment , Social Welfare Ministry
and the National Commission of Scheduled Tribes and Castes during the last
week ,in this regard. The Andolan alerts the government that if it still
continues with its criminal actions , the affected people will be forced
to stop the dam themselves and enter an intense struggle for the
protection of their right to life.
Govind Rawat,
Bondribai,
Alok Agarwal,
Chittaroopa Palit
|
