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dam-l LS: ToI - US role in Maheshwar draws flak

Times of India, 22 June 2000

                    US role in Indian dam project draws flak

                    NEW YORK: Shouting anti-dam slogans, about two 
dozen activists
                    gathered here to protest the involvement of 
America's Ogden Corporation in
                    a dam project in Madhya Pradesh.

                    The New York-based Ogden Corporation had signed a 
memorandum of
                    intent in March this year to invest 49 per cent 
equity in the 400-MW
                    Maheshwar dam hydropower project proposed to be 
built in partnership
                    with the Indian company S. Kumars.

                    The site of the anti-dam protest by 
representatives of non-governmental
                    organisations (NGOs) was the Grand Hyatt Hotel 
where the corporation
                    held its annual meeting of shareholders last week. 
The protesters said they
                    were concerned that the construction of the dam 
would lead to displacement
                    of more than 35,000 people in 61 villages, mostly 
fisher folk and sand
                    quarry workers and cultivators.

                    "Stop Ogden Corp! Save India's Narmada River," 
read one of the placards
                    as demonstrators raised slogans like "Wham, bam, 
build a dam; no more, no
                    more" and handed copies of a report on Maheshwar 
dam compiled by the
                    International Rivers Network to shareholders who 
were going to attend the
                    meeting.

                    A delegation from the organisers of the 
demonstration -- the Narmada
                    Solidarity Coalition (NSC) of New York, the 
Friends of Narmada and the
                    International Rivers Network -- later met with 
Kent Burton, senior
                    vice-president, policy and international 
government relations, as well as
                    Ashish Sarkar, head of Ogden's Asia division, separately.

                    "The officials promised early multilateral talks 
with all stakeholders,
                    including the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the 
Narmada Movement) and
                    the members of all affected communities," Chandana 
Mathur of NSC, who
                    was present at the meeting with Ogden officials, 
said. "We hope they mean
                    what they say," Mathur added.

                    According to her, Burton assured them that Ogden 
Corporation would
                    attempt to schedule a first meeting in India 
between stakeholders of the
                    Maheshwar dam in July or August this year. Burton 
also said the company
                    had sent a senior anthropologist to Maheshwar dam 
to ascertain the extent
                    of displacement as well as plans to rehabilitate 
those displaced.

                    The delegation also extracted a promise from the 
officials that the company
                    would not disregard human rights and environmental 
considerations. "They
                    said they were committed to pursuing a democratic 
and transparent process
                    as far as their involvement in the project was 
concerned," she said. (India
                    Abroad News Service)