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dam-l LS: Rally for the Valley Gathers Momentum
The Hindu, August 1, 1999
Rally for the valley gathers momentum
By Gargi Parsai
PATHRAD (MADHYA PRADESH), JULY 31. In a remarkable display of solidarity,
hundreds and thousands of men and women gathered on the banks of the Narmada
here today to lodge their protest against the Maheshwar dam, which has been
contracted to a private company by the Madhya Pradesh Government. The
offshoot of this privatisation is that the builders of the dam have struck
off their rolls several villages which are going to be submerged here, 110
km from Indore. The dam is one of the 3,000 proposed to be built in the
Narmada Valley.
Threatened with the prospect of losing their livelihood, homes and
cultivable lands, all of the 61 villages are united in their struggle for
their rights. At the entrance to this village, which is the nerve-centre of
the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) here, stands a notice: ``Any official
associated with the Maheshwar dam is banned from entering the village.''
Men and women in equal number travelled from a radius of up to 30 km to take
part in today's mammoth public meeting which was addressed among others by
the Booker Prize-winning author Ms. Arundhati Roy. Overwhelmed while
addressing the meeting, Ms. Roy said: ``I have never seen such a scene
before. Those who think NBA is lying should see this. So many people cannot
lie.''
The meeting was unique in that there was no conspicuous police presence. If
anything, a police van was discreetly following the ``Rally for the Valley''
buses carrying Ms. Arundhati Roy and 300 others from different parts of the
country.
Nearly 50 mediapersons from India and abroad are in the rally. ``Koi nahi
hatega, bandh nahi banega'' (``Nobody will move, the dam will not be
constructed'') is the slogan people raised as they walked in an endless
stream to the banks of the Narmada where 500 boatmen had parked their boats
to greet the rally.
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