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dam-l ENS: Indian Police Arrest Dam March Leaders (fwd)
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From owner-irn-narmada@igc.org Sat Apr 10 18:27:05 1999
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Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 14:06:40 -0800
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Subject: ENS: Indian Police Arrest Dam March Leaders
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Indian Police Arrest Dam March Leaders
By Frederick Noronha
NEW DELHI, India, April 9, 1999 (ENS) - Thousands of tribals and peasants
who fear being uprooted by ambitious dam projects in the central Indian
Narmada valley have concluded a Manav Adhikar Yatra (human rights march)
across vast areas of this country with a resolve to intensify their
struggle "against unjust displacement and for the right to life."
This march ended in the federal capital of New Delhi Thursday.
A delegation of the from the march met Maneka Gandhi, Indian federal
Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment. Their long trek prompted a
promise from her to send a high ranking team of officials to reassess the
status of rehabilitation and the land availability for the oustees of the
Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP). Gandhi is a former Minister of the
Environment and Forests (1989-1991) and daughter-in-law of former Indian
prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Protesters are challenging the claims by the governments about the
complete rehabilitation of all the oustees coming under the submergence of
land that would occur when the Sardar Sarovar Dam is raised to a height of
90 meters (293 feet). This massive dam and its associated irrigation
canals would lead to the eviction of some 320,000 people and would deprive
many hundreds of thousands more of their means of livelihood, the dam
opponents say.
After the discussions, Gandhi appointed two joint secretaries of the
department and one from the Rural Development Ministry for reassessing the
claims of rehabilitation and the land availability. The officials were
told to start their mission within two days and would directly report to
the minister.
"This has vindicated our stand that the governments of New Delhi and
states have lied in the Supreme Court regarding the status of
rehabilitation and displacement in the SSP," said Jagannath Kaka Patidar,
senior activist in the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Valley), a
group battling against the huge dam projects of behalf of affected tribals
and villagers.
Marchers arrived in Delhi Wednesday and held a protest rally at the
premises of the Social Justice Ministry in the early hours. The people
invited the Minister to come down to meet the people who had traversed
hundreds of kilometers to come to the nation's capital.
"Despite the rude response by the Minister, the Andolan did prepare a
memorandum and was awaiting a dialogue in the closed meeting. But the
police and arrested the women and men in very highhanded manner," said the
Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA).
Protesters, including the doughty woman leader of the protest and the
symbol of the anti-Narmada struggle, Medha Patkar, were arrested by
police. They were dragged during the arrests and received minor injuries.
Patkar is one of the 12 Commissioners of the World Commission on Dams, and
a Goldman Prize award winner. She was arrested in 1996 leading another dam
protest.
Prominent Hindu campaigner-priest Swami Agnivesh was also picked up by
police. Patkar and Agnivesh were later released.
Another respected social leader, Baba Amte, was forcibly packed up in the
waiting police ambulance and was told that he was under arrest. Later, he
was abandoned by police in one Delhi hospital, said NBA spokesperson
Sanjay Sangvai.
This march, aimed at protesting the displacement of the poor by huge
projects in India, started in Badwani, in the central province of Madhya
Pradesh, and made its way through various towns and villages to the
western commercial hub and major city of Bombay known locally as Mumbai.
Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada River would be raised, creating a larger
reservoir and flooding tribal and other agricultural lands
"They were welcomed by hundreds of organisation and movements of tribals,
Dalits (former Indian 'untouchables' and exploited sections of society),
fishworkers, urban poor, minorities, workers, trade unions, environmental
and human rights organisations," said the NBA in a statement.
The NBA said, "The struggle against the displacement has emerged as a
political consensus among the various organisations and sections of
population. This, according to them, was important in the days of the
globalisation, liberalization and the onslaught of the
national-international capital on the right to life and resources of the
people."
In another development, the campaigners said police had used tear gas
recently to disperse dam-oustees who were protesting against the Maheshwar
dam, at the end of March.
In a delayed statement dated March 31, and released this week, the NBA
said, "Today, as thousands of the oustees to be affected by the Maheshwar
Hydro Electric Project (MHEP) marched towards the dam site, the Government
burst tear gas shell to disperse them, and arrested people at several
places. In spite of this, the people reached and occupied the dam site,
and delivered the final warning to the state Government, the Indian and
foreign companies investing in and supporting the project that unless the
work on the project is stopped and the review initiated as per the report
of the Task Force within a week, the affected people will take to the
streets in large numbers and along with the people affected by other dams
in the Narmada Valley, launch an indefinite struggle."
"Several thousand" of the affected people started moving towards the dam
site from many different directions. The administration fired tear gas
shells to disperse those advancing from the coffer dam side, the NBA
announced.
It also said that one woman, Resham Bai of village Mardana, was injured in
this, and she has been admitted to the Mandeleshwar hospital. The people
entering from the Jalud village side were also stopped and arrested. In
spite of these attempts, the people succeeded in reaching the dam site and
stopped all the work, according to the Narmada Bachao Andolan.
Some huge dam projects have been increasingly drawing protest in recent
years in India, because of their potential to disrupt the lives of a large
number of the poor, who have few options to survive outside of the habitat
to which they have grown accustomed over generations.
@ Environment News Service (ENS) 1999. All Rights Reserved.
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Regards,
-Zubair Faisal Abbasi.
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Sustainable Development Networking Programme. Ph:092-051-270684,270691
House No. 12, Street No.85, G-6/4, Islamabad, Fax:092-051-270688
Pakistan. email:zubair@sdnpk.undp.org
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