INVITATION
PROTEST ON APRIL 28, 2016 AT MADHYA PRADESH BHAVAN – 12 NOON
2, Lokpriya Gopinath Bardolai Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi,
IN SUPPORT AND SOLIDARITY WITH NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN & LAKHS DISPLACED BY SARDAR SAROVAR DAM PROJECT
It has been three decades since the people of the Narmada valley have been struggling against the unjust displacement due to the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. The construction of the dam was restarted in June 2014 and now the dam height is nearing completion. As we approach the monsoon, two hundred thousand people are faced with the threat of submergence. These families are still living in the submergence zone, they will lose their villages, schools, places of worship, houses, farms with prime agriculture, panchayats and a township partly submerged earlier will be further affected.
The Narmada Bachao Andolan has challenged the government’s false affidavits on the question of complete R&R and exposed the massive corruption involved in the process. The NBA’s petition to the Madhya Pradesh High Court constituted a commission of Enquiry under Justice S SJha (referred to as the Jha Commission). The Jha commission submitted its report after nearly 7 years of detailed investigation into cases of corruption involving government employees and accepted the massive fraud which was to the tune of thousands of crores.
But the State of Madhya Pradesh has refused to grant the people access to the report! Furthermore, even the MLA’s have not been given access to the report. All this has been done citing privilege of the State Assembly.
The Justice Jha Commission report has the details of all fake registries, the amount of money wasted, and all the agents and officials involved in the scam. There is an urgent need to uncover the corruption involved in terms of money, land and the rights in the distribution of house plots and construction of resettlement sites. In addition, the question of the quality of resettlement sites cannot be ignored. All culprits involved must be punished regardless of being an officer or an agent. The corruption in the Narmada Valley Development Authority (N.V.D.A) must be uncovered.
During decades of struggle the NBA could succeed in getting 14,000 Adivasis, Dalit farmers and their families to receive land. ) especially in Gujarat and Maharashtra. But Madhya Pradesh is a different story, only 40 to 50 displaced families have been allotted land. Even today, 40,000 families live in the submergence zone.The Madhya Pradesh government has constantly fudged the number of oustees even changing the data relating to the Back Water Level, and thereby excluded many people from the submergence area and lists of Project Affected People thereby denying them their due R&R share – initially 4374 families and then another 15,900 families. Such action affecting about 20000 families is both unscientific and illegal.
These villages that lie in the submergence zone are full of life and activity, which cannot be submerged without proper resettlement violating the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal and Supreme court judgments of 1992, 2000 and 2005.
Despite all this, the Centre along with the Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat governments, have continued the construction of dam, which is almost complete.
On April 28th @ 12:00 pm, we will gather at the Madhya Pradesh Bhavan, New Delhi in solidarity with the Narmada Bachao Andolan and the lakhs of people affected by the Sardar Sarovar Dam Project. This is happening at a time when a three day protest- chetavani upvas and satyagraha is taking place in Bhopal.
Major Demands:
- Make public the Jha Commission Report on massive corruption in rehabilitation. Send the guilty to Jail. Now!
- Complete Rehabilitation & Resettlement of thousands of farmers, labourers, fisher people, and artisans before the monsoons. Gates of the dam should not be closed till R&R is complete and all affected are resettled at new sites, in 3 states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat at the earliest with all entitlements as per law and SC judgments.
JOIN US!
Zindabaad!