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dam-l Press Note: Medha and 300 others still under arrest
Press Note 22-9-99
Medha Patkar and 300 people still under arrest at Dhadgaon. Indefinite
Dharna starts as villagers from the Narmada Villages reach Dhadgaon.
People at Jalsindhi still in one feet water- Satyagraha continues.
Medha Patkar and 300 people were arrested and brought to Dhadgaon, by
the police late last night after an intense fight by people of the
Narmada valley, as the waters reached neck deep level of the Samarpit
Dal at the Domkhedi Satyagraha House and as waters entered villages
destroying fields and homes, for the third time this season.
The Samarpit Dal was neck deep in water at Domkhedi, for more
than 28 hours before they were arrested. Waters also entered people's
homes and fields at Sikka, Bharad, Pipalchop where people were in 2-3
feet water for hours. All the three hundred arrested and brought to
Dhadgaon are still under arrest.
Meanwhile hundreds of villagers from the Narmada valley and the
surrounding area are walking towards Dhadgaon where an indefinite
Dharana starts to demanded that the Government of Maharashtra must
initiate a dialogue with the people and answer their questions . The
indefinite sit in at Dhadgaon is to protest against the suppression of
the real issues through the police actions against the satyagrahis who
have been challenging the increase in back water due to the Sardar
Sarovar dam.
In a statement Medha Patkar said " When people have been raising the
basic issues and have been challenging injustice, the response of the
State Government was to trivialize it with the police actions. This is
not at all a law and order problem but the situation has arisen due to
the wrong policies and actions regarding the dam and displacement on the
part of Maharashtra rulers. It is the question of tribals rights."
The people arrested are demanding that the Government stop cat and
mouse game with them of arresting and releasing and rearresting. People
are serious on their demand and their resolve. The State Government
cannot shrink from its responsibility by hiding behind the police. They
demanded that the Chief Secretary or some such functionary of the State
Government must come to Dhadgaon where the people were detained and
answer their questions.
On the other hand, the increase in water in the Narmada had entered the
lowest house of the village Jalsindhi and its satyagraha house where
more than a hundred people including Luharia, Bawa Muharia, and others
have been sitting in 1 to 1.5 feet of water since yesterday afternoon.
It is important to note that this is just the starting of submergence in
MP where more than 193 villages are to be submerged, consisting of
33,000 families. The Madhya Pradesh Government has not yet given land
to a single family in its state. It is important to note that the Madhya
Pradesh Government has not yet been able to rehabilitate those displaced
years ago by the Bargi, Tawa, Sukta, Barna, etc. dams built on the
Narmada and its tributaries. Also the track record of the performance of
already existing dams in MP is very poor, for example, the Bargi
dam has submerged more land than it is irrigating today as MP Government has
no money to build the canals. Against this background, the MP
Government cannot be pardoned to have allowed submergence in MP due to
SSP and for having started other dams in the Narmada valley like
the Narmada Sagar and Maheshwar dams.
Meanwhile support groups are continuing programs against the Government
and in support of the demands of NBA in both Maharashtra and Madhya
Pradesh. At Bombay, activists of Samajwadi Janparishad, National
Alliance of People's Movements, various small groups in and around Thane
district blocked the main road of the metropolis. At Mandleshwar in MP,
the people of the Maheshwar dam affected area met the SDM in large
number and registered their protest. At Badwani people of the plains of
Nimad and in the submergence area of SSP had a rally at the district
head quarters and told the collector that they will drown but not move
if waters are allowed to rise further and condemned the flooding of the
village Jalsindhi.
Rehmat
Nandini Oza.
Baroda.