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dam-l LS: Medha Patkar, Baba Amte Arrested During SSP Protests
This email contains the following articles.
1) Medha Patkar, several NBA activists arrested, The Hindu, 4/8/99
2) Medha, Baba Amte held, Statesman News Service, 4/7/99
3) Tribals protest Supreme Court order on Narmada dam, Rediff on the Web, 4/6/99
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Medha Patkar, several NBA activists arrested
The Hindu, April 08, 1999
The Union Government today displayed its intolerance to voices of thousands of people displaced from the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) on Narmada, who travelled here from villages in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to air their grievances and seek justice. Instead of giving them a hearing, the Government ordered their arrest, unmindful of whether it were hundreds of women, old men, along with a bedridden Baba Amte, Ms. Medha Patkar, Kishan Patnaik or Swami Agnivesh.
Nearly 2,500 people displaced by the SSP today suffused the lawns of Shastri Bhavan here to apprise the Union Welfare Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Ms. Maneka Gandhi, of their predicament, only to be snubbed by the Minister and arrested by the Delhi police. Ms. Maneka Gandhi heads the Ministry which has to oversee the rehabilitation and resettlement (R and R) of the dam-affected people whose land and homes face submergence.
After initially agreeing to meet a delegation of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, led by Ms. Medha Patkar, the Union Minister made a volte face and though she was present in office, did not make herself available to the delegation when they went to meet her. Minutes later, a huge contingent of police swooped on the demonstrators, who were tribals and villagers from the Narmada valley in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, and forcefully dumped women and old men in hired buses. Several women were injured due to manhandling by the police of the Parliament Street station.
In the beginning the police allowed the oustees to stage a dharna in front of Shastri Bhavan. Since there were thousands of people who had been travelling from April 1, through the affected States on a Manav Adhikar Yatra (Human Rights March), they had requested the Minister to give a hearing to their problems.
``In this Delhi, where can people who are faced with the matter of life and death, go? The (Supreme) Court has given an interim order to raise the height of the SSP with the understanding that the oustees would be rehabilitated and resettled simultaneously. But that is not happening on the ground. The State Governments have given incorrect information on affidavits in court. The villagers have already exposed false claims of land availability in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. And people settled in Gujarat are returning to their homes for lack of facilities and acceptability, leave alone non- irrigatibility of land,'' said Ms. Medha Patkar, after she was released. Some women rallyists had passed down at the police station after being arrested as they were not provided with drinking water for more than two hours. Later when the police arranged for water, Cauverybai of Kushel tehsil in Madhya Pradesh rejected the water saying the Government has enough water to submerge their hom!
es but the Delhi police did not have water to quench their thirst. Madhu Joshi, also of M.P. told the police, ``Dafri jao (Go away), we will not drink your water. You have manhandled our women''.
Baba Amte said he had come only to stir the conscience of the nation, which is ``in a moral coma''.
Among those present with the rallyists were the former Chairman of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, Mr. Surendra Mohan, Ms. Manju Mohan and the leader of the National Fishworkers Forum, Mr. Thomas Kochery, who came from Kerala. Ms. Maneka Gandhi was not available for comment.
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Medha, Baba Amte held
Statesman News Service
NEW DELHI, April 7. - Ms Medha Patkar and Baba Amte, leaders of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, were today arrested for demonstrating outside the social justice and empowerment ministry office here.
Ms Patkar, who was dragged into a police van, was however released soon afterwards. She will meet the minister for social justice, Ms Maneka Gandhi, tomorrow to protest against "the continuing neglect of displaced people". Her efforts to meet the minister -- herself an environment activist -- today failed.
"Maneka Gandhi is the welfare minister. She is responsible for the resettlement of the dam-affected people. But she did not meet us today. Instead, the police chased us out," Ms Patkar told The Statesman.
Baba Amte was reportedly lifted forcibly by police outside the ministry office and left in the emergency ward of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. He said he was brought to the hospital against his will.
Doctors at the hospital said his "condition was stable". A doctor, requesting anonymity, said: "He has only one attendant with him. He refuses whatever aid we can provide. He is fine.
Area police said Baba Amte's supporters had made no trouble at the hospital.
Some NBA members demonstrated at Rajghat against the decision to increase the Sardar Sarovar Dam height by five metres. Several thousand people, mostly tribals, will be affected.
About 1,500 villagers from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra will hold a rally here tomorrow. Senior leaders including Ms Patkar and Swami Agnivesh, will be present.
With the dam height increased to 85 metres, the Sardar Sarovar Project will submerge huge tracts of land during the rainy season, affecting 2,000 tribal families, Ms Patkar said. Government estimates put the figure at 1,000.
"As it is, thousands have been displaced because of the dam and they have not been resettled in five years, despite promises. Simply because no land is available," Ms Patkar said.
The NBA's investigation shows that the governments of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra cannot obey the Supreme Court's orders and resettle the affected people, as there's no land to resettle them.
In Madhya Pradesh, about 31,000 hectares are required. Only 2,000-3,000 hectares of land, unfit for cultivation, are available.
The situation in Maharashtra is similar. "Very little land was earmarked in any case. Most of it is already encroached upon. We have gone through the entire list with different officials. It turns out that the land available is only on paper," Ms Patkar said.
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Tribals protest SC order on Narmada dam
Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Bombay
>From 06 Apr 1999, http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/apr/05narm.htm
For 14 years, Rukmani Pattidar (60), a villager from Bhawaria in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh, has been visiting Bombay almost every year. It is not as if she is particularly fond of the city or its inhabitants. But she makes the pilgrimage to bring to the notice of the chief minister of Maharashtra her plight once the Sardar Sarovar Project in Narmada Valley is constructed
The only places she has seen in Bombay despite visiting it so many times are Azad Maidan, the city's version of Delhi's Boat Club, and Mantralaya, the seat of government. And she has slept only at Chowpatty beach or in different city jails
"I have come to Bombay umpteen times and, you won't believe me, the police have put me behind bars almost every time. Don't I even have the right to protest?" she says
Pattidar's is not a lonely protest. Nearly 2,000 people from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat gathered in Bombay on Sunday, April 4, to protest against the Supreme Court's interim order allowing the Gujarat government to resume work on the dam from February 18
"For four years, construction of the dam was suspended. We thought its height would not be increased and we would be saved. But now our lives are once again in danger," she weeps
Mohan Patila from Sindhuri village in Nandurbar district of Maharashtra echoes her view: "After the World Bank withdrew from the SSP project and construction of the dam was stopped, I thought our villages would not be submerged. But the Supreme Court's decision has shattered us." According to the Narmada Bachao Andolan, the organisation leading the protest against the dam, the total number of villages that will be submerged if the project is completed is 19 in Gujarat, 33 in Maharashtra and 193 in Madhya Pradesh. And 41,000 families are likely to be affected
So far only 49 villages have been submerged. Yet, according to the NBA, no alternative accommodation has been given to any of the residents
Says Kamal Patil of Sindhrui village, near Nandurbar, "My village was drowned because of the dam, but the government has not given me any alternative place till date. I owned 5 acres of land, but the government gave me a plot at Akalkua where farming is extremely difficult." But does this treatment not make him revolt in a violent manner? "Yes, I feel like retaliating," he admits. "It is thanks to Medhatai [Medha Patkar] that our protest is non-violent," he says
Ramesh Vattida, a farmer from Barwani near Jhabua district in Madhya Pradesh, says, "I haven't been able to sleep ever since the Supreme Court allowed construction of the dam. I am a well-to-do farmer. Why should I shift from my state? Our government is telling us to shift to Gujarat. I can't adjust, especially as the land which the government is offering me is barren." Meanwhile, the Manav Adhikar Yatra (human rights march) of NBA has condemned the Maharashtra government for filing "false affidavits" regarding the displacement and resettlement of tribals affected by the controversial project
According to Sanjay Sangavai, an NBA activist, "The state government did not do enough to protect the rights of these poor tribals and presented a weak case in the Supreme Court. That's why we lost. But we are going to file another petition against this interim order as construction of another 5metres will affect the lives of at least 2,500 families in three states." "I have been to New Delhi, Bhopal, Gandhinagar and Bombay to meet all kinds of politicians. I only hope my protests will bring me justice," says Patidar
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Susanne Wong
Campaigns Assistant
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94703
Tel: 1.510.848.1155 ext 316 email: swong@irn.org
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