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dam-l From NBA: Update and Action on Maheshwar
Dear Friend,
This is an update on the NBA's struggle against the Maheshwar
Project. The struggle is at a very crucial stage. The people affected
by the Maheshwar Project urgently need your support. We hope that you
will share this update with as many people as possible.
In case you want to get in touch with the NBA or want more
information please email us either at:
NBA@LWBDQ.LWBBS.NET
or at:
nobigdam@bom4.vsnl.net.in
Thank you.
Chittaroopa Palit.
________________________________________________
UPDATE ON STRUGGLE AGAINST THE MAHESHWAR PROJECT
Storming the dam site
The Narmada Bachao Andolan's struggle against the Maheshwar dam has
taken a decisive turn. On 11th January, about 4,000 people
successfully captured the Maheshwar dam site despite strict police
arrangements and blockades. Another 1,000 people were gathered at the
river bank near the village of Jalud, the first village to be
displaced by the Maheshwar project, and they were not allowed to
reach the dam site. Black Cat commandos and Special Task Force police
were present during these operations. Finally, around 1,000 people
were arrested and kept in Maheshwar jail. 473 of these were women.
Satyagraha in jail
After putting the villagers in jail, the police sought to release
them on the 11th night itself, but the villagers refused to vacate
the jail premises till their questions about the Maheshwar Project
were satisfactorily answered. The entire jail staff fled, even as the
arrested people refused to move out! The people decided to embark on
satyagraha inside the jail till the Chief Minister provided
satisfactory answers to questions raised.
Our Questions
The project-affected people had several basic questions about the
dam. These were:
1. How much electricity will actually be produced by the Maheshwar Project?
2. How much will this electricity cost at point of production? Is it
true that the cost of peaking power may be as much as Rs. 10 per unit?
3. How much money will have to be given to S. Kumars from the state
treasury per year as per the escrow guarantee sought to be given to
the Project? Is it true that around Rs. 600 crores will have to be
given to S. Kumars irrespective of power production, and where will
this money come from?
4. How much cultivable land is available for the rehabilitation of
the affected people? The Task Force Committee constituted by the
Madhya Pradesh government has also recommended that 5 acres of land
should be given to the landless. Is land available for the landless
population?
5. The survey conducted by the Maheshwar Hydel Power Corporation
clearly shows that an enormously large area additional to the area
submerged will be rendered unfit for cultivation due to waterlogging.
How much area in how many villages will be affected by waterlogging?
Further, people affected by waterlogging should be declared as
project-affected.
6. Given that there are less expensive alternatives to the Maheshwar
Project, both in terms of financial costs as well as displacement
costs, why have these alternatives not been implemented?
On the afternoon of the 12th January, while hundreds of people were
on satyagraha in jail the Member of Parliament of Khargone Shri
Tarachand Patel and M.L.A. Shri Jagdish Morania came to meet them.
From the jail they carried a copy of a letter of the people of the
area addressed to the Chief Minister to Badwani where the Chief
Minister was on tour that evening. On the evening of the 13th January
finally the affected people received a written reply to their
questions. However the response of the Collector , Khargone, Mr.
Bhupal Singh, was vague, and sidestepped or deliberately distorted
the questions. The Collector gave no replies to questions about the
amount of electricity that would be produced by the Project, the cost
of electricity, the amount of money that would be given to S. Kumars'
on an annual basis as per the escrow agreement, the amount of
cultivable land available for rehabilitation, the amount of land that
would be waterlogged, or alternatives to the Project; that is to say,
he provided absolutely no answers.
In fact, according to the Collector, cultivable land would be
provided to the oustees 'only as far as possible'! This means that
the oustees would not be provided any cultivable land and
rehabilitation at all! This goes against the most basic principles of
rehabilitation for oustees.
After 3 days of satyagraha in jail, when all they received by the way
of an answer was the farcical reply from the Collector of Khargone,
it became clear that the government was unable to establish either
the public utility of the Project or answer questions about
displacement and rehabilitation. The people concluded the jail
satyagraha resolving to continue their struggle against the Maheshwar
Project.
The Collector's reply to the people's questions (translated from Hindi)
Bhupal Singh
Collector
13th January, 2000.
Subject: Four questions raised by the Narmada Bachao Andolan
Dear Chittaroopa,
You had raised 4 questions in your speech at the site of the
under-construction Maheshwar Hydro-Electric Project on the 11th of
January. The answers to your questions after consultation with the
state government are as follows:
Question 1: Every year Rs. 600 crores will be compulsorily given to
S. Kumars by the government.
Answer: No.
Question 2: No land will be provided in exchange for cultivable land.
Answer: Cultivable land will be given for rehabilitation to the ,
only as far as possible
Question 3: Electricity will be expensive viz. Rs. 10 per unit.
Answer: No.
Question 4: Even more land will be waterlogged than will come under
submergence.
Answer: No.
This has been presented for your information.
Regards,
Bhupal Singh.
Rallying at Tehsil places to demand information
On the 22nd, 24th, and 25th of January, rallies were held at the
Tehsil headquarters of the project-affected villages viz. Mandleswar
(Maheshwar Tehsil), Kasravad (Kasravad Tehsil), and Barwah (Barwah
Tehsil). Project-affected people gathered in large numbers at their
respective Tehsil headquarters on each of the 3 days and nearly all
the 61 villages affected by the Maheshwar Project were represented.
They pressed the Tehsil administration for responses to their
questions about the Project.
In response to the questions about the public utility of the Project
the officials accepted that though the installed capacity of the
Maheshwar Project is 400 MW, the firm power produced will be much
less - around 82 MW. Of course, this is much higher than the actual
figure which is likely to be close to 49 MW. However the authorities
sidestepped the question about the annual payments that have to be
made to S. Kumars by stating that they will be paid according to the
design energy of the Project.
The authorities accepted that at 1996 prices, at Rs. 1569 crores
outlay, and at an exchange rate of Rs. 35.58 per dollar, electricity
will cost more than Rs. 5 per unit. Currently, the proposed outlay
for the Project has been increased to Rs. 1922 crores (under
examinination with the Central Electricity Authority) and the
exchange rate is at Rs. 43.5 per dollar. The levellised tariff at
this proposed level of investment will work out to Rs. 7.35 per unit,
with peaking power going up to Rs. 9.5 per unit. Clearly the
Andolan's contention that electricity produced by the Maheshwar
Project will be very expensive has been vindicated.
Regarding rehabilitation, the people were told that 3 Tehsil-level
rehabilitation committees have been formed. However, 2 of the
committees have yet to meet, and only 2 meetings of the one committee
have taken place. Unfortunately none of the project-affected people
have been included in or consulted during these meetings. The
Sub-Divisional Magistrates of Kasravad and Barwah stated that
cultivable land was not available for rehabilitation. The Maheshwar
Sub-Divisional Magistrate produced outdated figures and tried to
establish that land was available in the villages itself. He was
immediately challenged by the people who said that no government land
was available except for land on the banks of the river that
submerges every year. The people then added that they were ready to
inspect the available land, hearing which the Maheshwar
Sub-Divisional Magistrate and the MPEB official present said that
this could not be done without permission from higher authorities.
It was very clear from the people's meeting with the administration
that absolutely no arrangements have been made for providing
cultivable land as compensation and the government's intent is to
provide only cash compensation to the people. It was also clear that
the resettlement sites currently being built, such as those of
Behegaon, Lepa and Malgaon, had no cultivable land available nearby
and that these sites were being built against the express wishes and
written petition of the people. The most startling and shocking thing
that came to light was that a large part of the land acquisition work
had now been given over by the government to S. Kumars, which is not
only irregular but also means that people's interests will not be
protected.
A large number of people from the Kevat, Kahar, Harijan, and Mankar
communities who quarry sand, fish, cultivate on the river draw-down,
and ply boats participated in the rallies If the Maheshwar dam is
built even a little, these people will completely lose all their
sources of livelihood since they are completely dependent on the
river and its resources. These communities earn as much as Rs.
150-400 per day, and in the Tehsil meetings, Kevats and Kahars drew
the authorities' attention to their prosperity. Challenging the
official contention that people of these communities are currently
leading very deprived lives, they made it very clear that they will
not be satisfied with the cash compensation sought to be given to
them. Their earnings from the river and its resources were much, much
more than the Rs. 11,000 offered by the government. Instead, these
communities should also be given 5 acres, as has already been
recommended in the Task Force Report, or the dam should not proceed.
In the last few days, the administration has tried to entice Kevats
and Kahars with money and tried to break their will. However the
authorities have been completely unsuccessful in this, and the
Kevats, Kahars, Harijans, and Mankars are pledged to fight for their
rights against the Project along with the farmers affected by the
Project. A number of people from villages which will be affected by
waterlogging were also present at the Tehsil rallies, but the
administration refused to give any information on waterlogging.
In the last week of January and the first week of February, panchayat
elections are being held in Madhya Pradesh. An unprecedented amount
of money is being pumped into influencing sections of the press, and
into the submerging villages to buy votes for these elections. The
private promoters of the Maheshwar Project are using all the power at
their disposal in order to break the people's struggle. Yet, the
struggle continues. At the Maheshwar dam site, work has slowed down.
But, the German government is still examining whether or not to
guarantee the $220 million loan from the Hypo Vereinsbank to the
Project. Similarly the negotiations of S. Kumars with the Ogden
Energy Group to obtain 49% of the Project equity vacated by the two
German companies, who withdrew from the Project in 1999, continues.
You are aware of the significance of intensifying the struggle at
this moment. The time to oppose very powerful and rapidly entrenching
economic interests in the power sector is right now. The role played
by state institutions in the Cogentrix case has shocked us all to the
core. You are also aware of the heroic struggle of the striking power
engineers and workers in Uttar Pradesh in the last few weeks. The
issues being raised by the Narmada Bachao Andolan in the Maheshwar
area are part of the larger struggle against loot, unbridled
privatization, and globalization, especially in the power sector. We
have to ensure that the rights to lives and livelihoods of thousands
of people are not sacrificed in favor of the economic interests of
large companies and multinationals. This is the time and place to
strike a blow against privatization and support the struggle of the
people.
The people will intensify their opposition in the coming days.
Immediately after the elections, the indefinite action launched by
the NBA will continue. We will begin an indefinite dharna, followed
by a hunger strike, along with other actions in and around the dam
site. As soon as we finalize our plan of action we will let you know.
The people of the Maheshwar area are counting on your support and we
hope that you will join us in the struggle. You can contribute by:
- coming to the Maheshwar area and supporting us as the struggle continues,
- by sending letters to S. Kumars, and arranging demonstrations in
front of S. Kumars retail outlets and showrooms in your city,
- by organizing a letter-writing campaign by schoolchildren against
the unjust Maheshwar Project and S. Kumars (with this update we have
appended a letter which schoolchildren could sign and send to S.
Kumars),
- by urgently writing/faxing to the following, asking for the
techno-economic and the environmental clearances of the project to be
withdrawn and the project to be dropped in the light of the ongoing
and proved violations and the recommendations of the Task Force
constituted by the Madhya Pradesh Government, and expressing
solidarity with the struggle of the people.
Shri Digvijay Singh,
Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh,
Vallabh Bhavan,
Bhopal.
Phone: 0755-540503
Fax: 0755-540501
Shri T.R. Balu,
Minister for Environment & Forests,
Paryavaran Bhavan,
C.G.O. Complex, Lodhi Road,
New Delhi.
Phone: 011-4361748 / 4629133.
Fax: 011-6965949
Shri P. R. Kumaramangalam
Minister of Energy and Power,
Shram Shakti Bhavan,
Rafi Marg,
New Delhi.
Phone: 011-3710411 / 3717474
In solidarity,
Kalusingh Mandloi
Urmila Patidar
Alok Agarwal