From patrickirn@igc.apc.org Thu Jun 16 05:38:09 1994 Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 02:21:15 -0700 From: Patrick McCully Subject: SSP: WATERS BEGIN TO RISE /* Written 2:17 am Jun 16, 1994 by patrickirn@igc.apc.org in igc:env.dams */ /* ---------- "SSP: WATERS BEGIN TO RISE" ---------- */ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NARMADA UPDATE JUNE 16, 1994 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WATERS START TO RISE BEHIND DAM RESETTLEMENT LAND CRISIS WORSENS DOCUMENT SHOWS FORCIBLE EVICTIONS PLANNED The monsoon broke over the Narmada catchment on June 13. The river behind the Sardar Sarovar was rising at a rate of 15 cms per hour on June 15. The latest report from the dam site put the water level at 62.5m above sea level. Bhulabhai Motibhai, the man who lived in the first house behind the dam continues his fight to be recognised as a Project-Affected Person and so made eligible for replacement land. Bhulabhai was arrested and evicted from his house last year, hours before it was engulfed in the rising waters. He has since been living with neighbours in Vadgam. The government of Gujarat has failed to comply with a 1993 High Court order saying that Bhulabhai and eight other Vadgam families should be given house plots and that the District Collector should negotiate their resettlement package with them. Bhulubhai wrote to the Collector of Bharuch District yesterday stating that if he did not receive a reply he would prepare to be submerged by the rising waters in few hours time. Other people in Vadgam wrote similar letters. Maharashtra Resettlement Crisis The NBA have obtained an official note written by the Collector of Dhule District, Maharashtra, on June 5 which says that 733 tribal families in the state will be affected by submergence in this monsoon. The land and/or houses of 142 of the families will be permanently flooded. Of these 142 families, says the note, only 54 had been moved and 88 families remained, just days before the start of the monsoon. Out of the 591 families whose land is likely to be temporarily flooded, only 122 have moved. Despite repeated claims from the authorities over the last few years that all families in Manibeli have been resettled, the Dhule Collector notes that 28 families in the village will be affected by permanent submergence this year and 6 by temporary flooding. Only 4 of the 28 families have moved. Another confidential government note says that of the 733 families to be affected, 322 have accepted resettlement land. As 176 families have moved, this means that the government has been incapable of moving 146 families who have accepted resettlement. Eighty families from Dhankhedi, Maharashtra, immediately upstream from Manibeli, have been trying to get resettlement land for the past three years. Together with nine other families they were finally moved in May, after being told that land was ready for them at Simamli, Gujarat. However only two of the 89 families have been given the documents to their new land. Out of the remaining 87, only 28 have even been shown plots of land and these plots are now at the centre of an ownership dispute as the land is being used by tribal people displaced by Ukai Dam in the 1970s. Apparently the landowners who 'sold' their land to the government for the Ukai oustees did not hand over their ownership documents and have now sold their land a second time to the Narmada Nigam. The remaining 59 families at Simamli have been told not to expect to get any land this year. The people at Simamli do not know how they will survive without being able to grow food. They have already been forced to start selling the house materials they brought with them. Forty families have now returned to Dhankhedi. Forcible Eviction in Gadher Numerous families are being forcibly evicted. The NBA have recently heard of the following incident in Gadher, Gujarat. The family who lived in the largest house in the village had for years been trying unsuccessfully to get proper resettlement land. The family, like most of the Gujarat oustees, had no involvement with the NBA. On June 4, a party of officials and 'middlemen' (villagers paid by the government to assist resettlement) accompanied by 50 labourers in 11 trucks arrived at the family's house. The head of the household refused to move and was hit by some of the middlemen. The terrified family ran away and the labourers then demolished their house. Over the next two days more trucks came and took away the house and its contents. The family, who returned home on June 6, do not know where their belonging have been taken. Some of their animals have also disappeared. Document Describes Eviction Plans A confidential document dated 11 May written by a Maharashtra resettlement official and leaked to the NBA outlines a plan to forcibly evict the oustees in the state. The document says that forcible evictions would start in Manibeli on May 15 and gives targets for the number of evictions to be carried out by May 28 and May 31. It describes how many police and vehicles would be needed for each village. Clearly a decision was taken at a high political level to stall the eviction plans. The document gives a figure of 3065 oustee families in Maharashtra, 330 higher than publicly stated estimates. ######################## Compiled by Patrick McCully of International Rivers Network with information from Himanshu Thakker of the NBA in Baroda, Gujarat. ###########################################