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dam-l LS Narmada agitation finds echoes in European Union

from rediff.com

Narmada agitation finds echoes in European Union

                  Ranvir Nayar in Paris

                  The agitation by the Narmada Bachao Andolan against
the Sardar Sarovar Project has received a major boost with ballooning
support for the cause from leaders across the political spectrum in the
European Union, who have come out openly against the project.

                  The European politicians are likely to not only lobby
their own  governments but might also extend their campaign to
the corporations and banks involved in the project. Wolfgang
Kreissl-Dorfer, a Green Party member of the European Parliament from
Germany, told
rediff.com in Brussels recently that sentiment against potential
environmental disasters like the Narmada project was building up.

                  For starters, the issue will figure in the European
Parliament, as a resolution expressing concern over the situation in the
Narmada
Valley will be moved next week. The resolution, to be moved by the Green
Party, will appeal to the Indian government not to go ahead with the Sardar
Sarovar Project, due to the human and environmental costs of the
project.

                  The resolution will also call upon the European Union
banks not to finance the project or companies involved in the project. It
will also express open support for the people fighting the SSP.

                  Kreissl-Dorfer says that several MEPs are seriously
concerned over the social and environmental aspects of the project. He
said that his group has been in touch with MEPs from other groupings like the
Socialists and the Christian Democrats and expected widespread support
for the resolution during the debate on it. Parliamentarians from France,
Italy, Finland, Germany and Sweden are expected to play a leading role
in the campaign.

                  "Our main concern is that people who are affected by
the project be given land of equally good quality and also monetary
compensation. We believe that such Pharaonic projects are no solution to the
problems. We also believe that the benefits to irrigation that will be
generated from this project will be for cash crops and benefit only big
landholders rather than the small farmers who are at the receiving end of
the project
displacement. We want to have a dialogue with the Indian government about
the project," Kreissl-Dorfer said.

                  He says the idea of moving a resolution in the
European Parliament is to inform a majority of the MEPs about the project and
the role that the European governments or companies have in it. He says
that European companies have to respect the same environmental
standards and rules outside the EU that they have to abide by within the
EU.

                  He says that the issue will be raised even outside the
Parliament. "The new European Commission and the European Parliament will
have to look much more closely over what we do with the development
aid. It has so far not been done well and often the EU is paying for
such projects," Kreissl-Dorfer exclaimed.