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DAM-L LS: Oustees Sore About Maharashtra GRA Visit (fwd)
NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN
B-13, Shivam Flats, Ellora Park, Baroda-390007 * 58, Gandhi Marg, Badwani, M.P.
(email: baroda@narmada.org )
Press Note/ August 10, 2000
Narmada Oustees Sore About The Visit Of Grievance Redressal Authority
From Maharashtra :
People Once Again Expose The Rehabilitation Claims
The tribal oustees of the controversial Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP)
from Maharashtra villages did not feel assured with the first ever
visit of the Chairman of Grievance Redressal Authority (GRA),
Jusitce(Retd) S.P.Kurdukar. The people felt that the GRA treated the
basic issues of land, resources and the processes regarding the
rehabilitation and displacement more on technical ground, instead of
on the basis of the intrinsic importance.
The GRA visited the SSP affected villages from Manibeli to Domkhedi
on August 7 and 8, to know about the grievances regarding the
resettlement and the overall situation regarding the displacement,
resettlement and land availability etc. However, despite this
attitude of the GRA, the people have brought forth number of serious
and basic issues regarding the displacement and resettlement to the
notice of the Authority. The GRA was appointed according to the
Supreme Court interim order in May 2000, to go into the grievances
regarding the resettlement of the oustees from Maharashtra. It was
also asked to look into the matter of the kind of resettlement that
occurred hitherto and the prospects of future resettlement and land
availability. Accordingly, the GRA came to the villages to assess the
situation of the resettlement and the grievances of the people.
At Kevedia colony, near the dam site, a delegation of oustees from
Maharashtra, relocated in Gujarat met him. Though they were resettled
in Gujarat, either the Government of Gujarat or the Government of
Maharashtra never looked into their abysmal conditions at
resettlement sites. However, Justice Kurdukar, the GRA for the
grievances of Maharashtra oustees too refused to look into their
cases, on the grounds that these were the responsibility of another
state (Gujarat). He did not entertain the pleas that these oustees
were from Maharashtra and their cases were not taken seriously by the
host state, the state of Maharashtra and that the GRA-Maharashtra has
a responsibility towards ensuring their proper rehabilitation
according to the Tribunal Award and other state policies. These
oustees are having several grievances like water logging of their
lands, bad quality of agricultural land, non-allotment of land for
cultivation, lack of irrigation etc.
However, instead of treating the issues on merely narrow technical
ground, the problem of displacement and rehabilitation should have
been considered in a humane and holistic manner, the people felt.
People from the affected villages, like Dhankhedi, Chimalkhedi, Gaman
and other villages were present at Manibeli, the first village in
Maharashtra to face submergence in 1991, and whose rehabilitation is
not done till date by the successive governments. They too were not
happy with the experience of the Authority.
In the last leg of his tour, Justice Kurdukar was received at
Domkhedi by the village elder Dadlya Karbhari. The three-week-old
Satyagraha has been going on at Domkhedi . Over 500 village
representatives and Satyagarhis were present at the time of his
visit. Several people, including Kesav Vasave (Village Nimgavan),
Vesta Pawra(Sikka), Dedlibai Vasave (Domkhedi), Noorji Padvi (Danel)
made the submissions. The submissions were about the land rights
issue, non-availability of land for rehabilitation, incomplete and
inadequate surveys, exclusion of adult sons from the government lists
etc. People also stressed the issues regarding the right to
information and right to life. They made it clear that the Government
of Maharashtra does not have adequate land to rehabilitate the large
number of people the dam would displace, nor was it aware about the
magnitude of the impacts of displacement.
Medha Patkar of NBA pointed out that the hundreds of tribals are
still counted as 'encroachers', as they have not been given the land
titles, as there has been no land settlement after Independence in
these areas. "This amounts to be a denial of legal and constitutional
rights of the tribals" she asserted.
Jst. Kurdukar also met a group of 10 people at Dhadgaon (Block
Headquarters) on the 9th, to dispose off individual cases. Here it
was again proved that claims regarding the land availability for
resettlement were illusory and majority of those who were displaced
were due to the pressure tactics by the government. It was also made
clear that the government's claims that the majority of people have
opted for rehabilitation and only a few are left in the villages is
wrong.
Joe Athialy M.K. Sukumar
==========<medhapatkar@vsnl.com>==========
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