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DAM-L NARMADA/SSP/INDIA: <fwd> "Black Day" information: Oct. 18
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Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 10:38:39 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200110191738.f9JHcdc27471@DaVinci.NetVista.net>
Subject: LS: Black Day
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NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN
B-13, Shivam Flats, Ellora Park, Baroda-390007 * 58, Gandhi Marg, Badwani,
M.P.
(Ph. 07290-22464 ; 0265-282232. Email: baroda@narmada.org;
badwani@narmada.org)
Press Note/ Oct. 19, 2001
Rallies In Narmada Valley AND Outside On ‘Black Day’ 18th Oct.
ASSUMPTIONS IN VERDICT BELIED: NO RESETTLEMENT UPTO 90 M.
CALL TO REVIEW COURT DECISION: PROTECT PEOPLE’S RIGHTS
Rallies, village meetings and signature campaigns marked the ‘Black Day’,
18th October- in the Narmada valley villages and outside as a mark to
protest and resolve on the first ‘anniversary’ of the infamous verdict of
Supreme Court delivered on 18th October, 2000, on the Sardar Sarovar Project
(SSP). In a large meeting at Dhadgaon, thousands of tribals and peasants
made it clear that, “ since all the assumptions of the majority decision by
the Supreme Court for allowing work on the dam up to 90 meters have proved
to be false during the one year after the verdict, the Court must reconsider
the decision. This is necessary to avoid future disaster, violation of
people’s rights, Constitutional values and to adhere the principles of
justice and equality”.
The people also expressed concern over the recent decisions by the higher
courts against the rights of the workers, dalits, tribals and peasants and
asked the Indian Judiciary to protect the rights and life of the depressed
classes and not the interests of the corporate powers.
In Nimad, in Madhya Pradesh, there were village rallies and meetings where
the people resolved to confront the attempts by the government to unjustly
displace them. The villagers gathered at the ‘sankalp stambh’ ( pillar of
resolve) in each village and took oath to continue the struggle against the
unjust dam and displacement. They also decried the contempt proceedings
against noted author Arundhati Roy in the Supreme Court and requested the
Court to make them co-accused with her, as they also hold the same views
expressed in her affidavit.
Activists including Medha Patkar, Pinjaribai, Dedlibai, Keshavbhai,
Noorjibhai, while addressing the rally in Dhadgaon on Thursday (18th) , made
it clear that “ Our apprehensions about the majority judgment of the Supreme
Court last year have come true as the work on the dam has proceeded and
people are being displaced violating all norms and provisions of Narmada
Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT). It has been proved now that there is no
master plan to resettle the oustees in M.P. and Maharashtra even as over
40,000 families in the submergence areas are facing the displacement. The
dam should not go ahead and the Court and also the independent
organizations, experts, social-political workers must review the decision
and the project”. They welcomed the recent decision of the Maharashtra
government for the participatory planning of resettlement.
The people called for an alternative development which safeguards the rights
of the tribals, dalits and common people with the respect for the
Constitutional values of justice, natural resources and democracy along with
a participatory planning process based on their own self-dependence and
capabilities.
The oustees already displaced and ‘resettled’ in Maharashtra resettlement
sites also observed the Black Day. Hundreds of the tribals held a rally at
Akkalkuwa and made it clear that the Supreme Court had allowed the
construction on the dam up to 90 meters, when even those below 85 meters
have not been resettled fully for many years. Pratibha Shinde of Punarwas
Sangharsha Samiti (PSS), Keesingh Vasave of NBA and others demanded that
there should be no further construction and displacement on the dam without
resettling the already displaced people. A torch-procession was taken out in
the night.
Support actions
In Mumbai activists of National Fishworkers Forum, India Center of Human
rights, Sarvodaya and Peace activists along with the artists held
demonstrations near Churchgate. In Pune also activists held pickets at the
gates of the District Courts. Political parties like CPM, CPI-ML, Janata Dal
and organizations like PUCL participated in the demonstrations. People
signed the appeal to the Chief Justice for the reconsideration of the
Narmada verdict and in support of Arundhati Roy.
False Premises
It must be remembered the Court,in its decision on 18th October 2000,
allowed the work based on the affidavits regarding the resettlement filed by
the governments- who were the defendants in the case. A year after the
verdict, all the presumptions of the Court - either regarding the
cost-benefit of the large dams or the ground reality about the displacement
and rehabilitation- proved wrong. The people below the 90 meters of height
of the dam have not been resettled even now. The Narmada Control Authority
(NCA) has confessed this reality and the Rehabilitation sub-group of NCA has
not given permission for increasing height further. The Madhya Pradesh
government has already declared that it has no land for resettlement and it
is now trying to oust the people by giving them cash compensation- against
the stipulations of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) Award. The
recent report by Justice (Retd). S.M. Daud Committee has exposed that the
Maharashtra government has no land for resettling the people upto 90 meters
and beyond. The Government of Maharashtra has appointed a Task Force to
review the resettlement up to 90 m., after the 11 day fast by Narmada
activists in Mumbai in September 2001.
Even the claims of benefits and the inevitability of the SSP, the
environmental and decision-making aspects are equally doubtful. The report
of the World Commission on Dams, in November 2000, has put a question mark
on the exaggerated claims of the benefits from the large dams. All these
developments indicate that the majority judgment was seriously flawed. “In
such case the judgment need to be reviewed by the Court itself to protect
the justice, people’s rights and its own dignity and fairness”, the
organizations demanded.
M.K. Sukumar
Sanjay Sangvai
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