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dam-l PR: Bargi Dam Gates Opened As Oustees Win Access to Drawdown Land
Press Release/ December 23, 1998
NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN
Bargi Bandh Visthapit Evam Prabhavit Sangha
Vill : Chourai, Near barrier, Barginagar, Jabalpur, M.P.
PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE COMPELS M.P. GOVERNMENT TO
OPEN THE BARGI DAM GATES : OTHER DEMANDS TOO CONCEDED
Sixteen Day Old Dharna Ends
It may be perhaps for the first time in India that the gates of the dam
were opened for the people who had been displaced. On Tuesday, December
22nd, at 3.20 p.m. the first gate of the controversial Bargi dam was
opened. Withing fifteen minutes the dam water started cascading down from
eight gates of the dam to lower the reservoir level at 418 meters and
distribute the drawdown land among the oustees. The struggle of the people
ousted due to the controversial dam, the first large dam on river Naramda,
has acheived yet another significant victory for all the displaced people
in India. The men, women and children, who have been on dharna along with
the activists and supporters, taken out a 'mashaal juloos' (torch
procession) to celebrate the people's victory against the adamant
administration and reinforce their resolve to give a dogged fight to
achieve their right to land, water, forest and the right to life itself.
The lowering of the reservoir level at 418 from 422 meters on December 15,
every year, meters has been a part of the comprehensive, resource based
resettlement package for the Bargi oustees accepted by the Government of
Madhya Pradesh, in 1996 and 1997. This would make available about 5000
hectatares of the drawdown land which would be distributed to some 3000
oustee families for rabi (winter) crops. Though the state government had
issued the order of this effect on August 21, 1997, the bureaucrats and the
dam officials were reluctant to implement it and had inserted the clause of
" as far as possible, the water level would be brought to 418 meters by
December 15". On this pretext, the people were not given the drawdown lands
in December 1997. In 1998, though the people have been warning the
administration to observe the D date of December 15, no concrete steps were
taken. Despite the dharnas in Mandla and Seoni, on December 1 and 2, and
the 'vigil' (choksi) dharna launched near the office of the Superinteding
Engineer (SE) from December 7, no action was taken to lower the reservoir
level to 418 meters. Only after that some water was released through canals
or then through escape chanel of the dam, which would not have brought the
reservoir level of 418 meters till the end December. The people were
agitated and they stepped up their agitation demanding opening of the
gates alongwith the immediate meeting of the joint "Resettlement Planning
Committee" to decide about the major pending issues. They also demanded the
reorganising of the state level comittee under the chairmanship of the
Chief Minister and with adequate representation to the displaced peoeple
and their organisation.
On December 16, the people on dharna captured the office of SE. They also
had appealed to the National Hunman rights Commission (NHRC) to intervene.
On December 21, some representatives met the Chief Minister at Jabalpur and
demanded the immediate implementation of the already agreed issues. The
Chief Minister categorically assured the people that the reservoir level
would be brought to 418 immediately by opening the gates and the there
would be investigation about the people and factors responsible for this
delay. He also assured that there would be no delay in future. After this ,
the District Collector of Jabalpur, Mr. Swain accompanied by other higher
officials and the Director of Resettlement of Narmada Valley Development
Authority (NVDA) arrived on dharna site on December 22. After the detailed
discussions in front of the people with the representatives of
organisation.
Accordingly, the government ordered the lowering of the reservoir level to
418 meters immediately, by opening the gates of the dam. The SE, after
opening of the gates, informed that the 418 m. level would be brought by
the noon of 24th. It was decided to take action against the responsible
officials for the delay. The government agreed that such mistake would not
be committed next year and there would be a clear timetable and schedule,
manual for getting the desired level before December 15. The government
officials have promised to make all efforts to hold the 'Resettlement
Planning Committee" meeting at the siter of Dharana before December 27 and
to reorganise the state level committee. The people demanded that they be
provided the seeds for the delayed sowing season and the collector assured
to make all the eforts to do so.
Basanti Behn, Jagram Dada, Lalaram Dharmik, Rajesh Tiwari, the main
activists of the Sangha inusisted that the government must
The District Collector appealed the people to take up the sowing
operations immediately after claiming the opened drawdown land. Medha
Patkar , one of the activists, while declaring lifting of the dharna,
emphasised that the people would make the govdernment implement its word
and they would make the administration responsible. " The struggle was not
merely to bring the level down by some meters, but it was a test of the
credibility of the government and the self confidence of the peoeple, who
have been in the open, with meagre food, in the cold wave conditions to
assert their right and their strength," she said.
The people affected by the canal of the Bargi dam too put their case at
this time. Over 300 hectares of fertile land of village Khapa was
watelogged due to the seepage from the canals. The people affected by the
Bargi Dam Colony and the Oustees Employeers Association too presented their
case and pleaded for justice. All these people have pledged support for the
dam oustees' struggle. Though the lowering of the reservoir level by any
means has been the responsibility of the government, the organisation has
already assessed the possible effect of the release of the dam waters
through the gates. It was found from the activists working in the
downstream areas of Narsinghpur, that mere increase of 1 foot in the water
level would have no effect on the downstream crops at present. Had it been
late, say in January, the Barman fair and riverbed plantations would have
been affected.
Thus, despite the delay in providing the lands this year, the people have
asserted their right to get the lands in the reservoir, even by opening of
the gates. Opening of the gates of the dam has been continuing, only to
prevent any danger to the dam and in the name of 'flood control'( in
effect, this exacerbates the flood fury), but for the first time the dam
gates were opened to protect the rights of the displaced people.This has
been another siginificcant achievement of the Bargi oustees, after
they have got the exclusive right of fishing in the reservoir, in 1994.
This too has been the first of its kind of achievement of the oustees'
struggle in this country. The Bargi oustees, who had been displaced in
1970s and 1980s and whose lands were submerged in 1990, have been
considered as 'dead people' . They fled from their villages, or have been
living a wretched life without land, livelihood, employment and are still
living on the brink of hunger and death. Number of them had to go to far
off places for selling their labour or pull rikshaw in Jabalpur city living
in most abysmal conditions. From 1991-92, the people started organising and
struggling for their rights. After five years of struggle, the Chief
Minister of Madhya Pradesh had accepted the need to resettle the people
within a policy framework and with the cooperation of the Bargi Bandh
Visthapit and Prabhavit Sangha. Apart from the joint Resettlement Planning
Committee and state level committee the state government, in 1994, had
given the exclusive fishing rights in the reservoir to the oustees. This
has been significcant achievement, as the affected people of other
completed dams too demanded the same right. The oustees organisation of
Tawa dam, in the Narmada valley, demanded the right over reservoir and had
got it. Despite cooperation with the government , there was no significant
improvement in the peoeple's lifde. Thus, in the monsoon of 1996, the
people launched the satyagraha of not allowing the dam to be filled. They
sat en mass at the level of 418 meters, at Bijasen. Despite the police
repression and filling up of the dam the peopele did not budge. They sat in
the chest high waters for 36 hours. In 1997, monsoon too, after a
protracted dharna, four main activists went on indefinite fast that lasted
for 12 days. The state government had agreed to give the drawdown land to
the oustees by bringing down the reservoir level to 418 meters. In 1997
December, the lands could not be opened up due to the unusual rains. The
struggle was taken up again in mid 1998, when the people warned the
administration to prepare for the 418 meters level, in a rally on July 14.
After number of reminders, there were dharnas at Mandla and Seoni on
December 1 and 2 repectively. Then the peoeple launched the dharna at Bargi
Nagar, on December 7, which became successful on sixteenth day.
Sanjay Sangvai
for NBA
Jabalpur, 23.12.1998