The Hindu, July 30 2017, Thrissur: The ongoing Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save Narmada agitation) by social activist Medha Patkar has its reverberations miles away, here in Thrissur.
Students of Salsabeel Green School, Kiraloor, observed a hunger strike on Saturday to express solidarity with the campaign. Ms. Patkar, along with Sardar Sarovar Dam-affected people, has been on an indefinite hunger strike at Barwani, Madhya Pradesh, since Thursday for the proper rehabilitation of the displaced.
“Once the last shutter of the Sardar Sarovar dam is closed, around three lakh people from 121 villages and a township will be left homeless. Their houses and farmlands will be submerged. The MP government has forcibly evicted them and rehabilitated them in makeshift tin sheds,” the students said.
The students of the school had participated in the Narmada Bachao Andolan even before. A few of them who participated in the ‘Rally for the Valley,’ organised by the Narmada Bachao Andolan last month in Gujarat, were manhandled by the police there. The students had visited the Narmada valley and tribal villages affected by the dam.
“The people there said they would not survive if their farmlands were submerged. They knew only one vocation, farming. Already many villages were under water. We stayed with them for almost a week,” said Meghna Jojo, a Class 9 student who was part of that expedition.
The students and teachers of the school wanted to express solidarity with those fighting for the rights of the evicted people, Principal Sainabha said.
“We have to protest when injustice is meted out to helpless people,” said Harshim Rissoy, an Class 8 student participating in the agitation on Saturday.
Around hundred students of the school took part in the protest in front of the Thrissur Corporation office by shouting slogans.
Web: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/ripples-of-narmada-stir-reach-thrissur/article19388697.ece
