Noted activist and Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar
said: “We have unearthed a scandal of hundreds of crores and have lodged
police complaints. Madhya Pradesh officials, their agents and bankers
have together eaten up to 50 per cent of the money that was meant for
compensation for the oustees.”

Hundreds of farmers from the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and
Maharashtra along with activists from NBA staged a noisy protest on
Wednesday at the gates of the Indian minister for Social Justice and
Empowerment Meira Kumar in New Delhi. An NBA delegation met with the
minister and also with officials of the Ministry of Water Resources.

Patkar alleged that the state government has violated a number of orders
by the Central government and also a March 15, 2005 judgment by the
Supreme Court of India over compensation to oustees.

Giving an account of human rights violations by the state, Patkar said:
“Despite clear instructions by many agencies that land has to be given
to people as compensation, and not cash, the government has sent
registered letters to landless villagers that money has been deposited
in the bank. How can people take money when they do not have bank accounts?

Corrupt government officials, with the help of middlemen and bank
employees, have withdrawn hundreds of crores of Rupees. Now that the
fraud has been unearthed, officials are intimidating villagers, forcing
them to sign fake affidavits and asking them to return the money - money
which the landless never got!”

Water activist Vimal said: “Land owners have taken to working as
labourers. Orchards and fields have been submerged and nearly ten
thousand people have lost livelihoods. The law says people have to be
rehabilitated before land is acquired, but in reality it is the other
way round. People have been evicted at 48-hour notices.”

The protestors included women and children, who clapped and sang songs
about the Narmada River, crops and fields. Many people gave testimonials
and narrated their tales of woe. Most were worried about the future of
their children as everything - schools, hospitals and houses lie
submerged under water.

The protestors squatted in front of the office of the Ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment and shouted slogans. “We are asking for our
rights and not alms,” “No land, no honour” and “We will fight and we
will win.”

Farmer Noorji Padwani from village Daenil in Maharashtra said: “I have
been relocated to Gujarat and given land which is rocky and infertile.
Even after a number of years of hard work we have been unable to grow
any crops there. This is not the kind of compensation we want in return
for cultivable and fertile land.”

Patkar said: “All big land projects are being pushed in the same manner.
Just two days back the police in the state of Orissa killed tribals
agitating over land rights. It is a nexus between politicians,
bureaucrats, contractors and businessmen. In the Narmada valley, people
are living in the open and are facing snake bites and attacks from
crocodiles. If there is rain, more people will be rendered homeless.”

The NBA has completed two decades of struggle for land rights and proper
compensation for millions of farmers and villagers affected by the
Narmada Dam Project in central India. The movement has given itself a
slogan - 20 Years of Resistance and Reconstruction.