New Delhi

MEDHA PATKAR AND OTHER NBA ACTIVISTS CONDEMN THE FALSE CHARGES FILED
AGAINST THEM

MINISTERS TEAM RETURNS FROM THE VALLEY AFTER SEEING SHODDY SITUATION OF
REHABILITATION. WHAT WILL THEY DECIDE NOW?

INDEPENDENT OBSERVERS SHARE THEIR REPORT OF THE TEAM’S VISIT

MASS OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT AND ACTION IN SOLIDARITY

Medha Patkar, Jamsingh Nargave, and Bhagwati Patidam are now in their 10^th
day of fasting for the immediate halt of illegal construction on the
Sardar Sarovar Dam. Medha and Jamsinghbhai both remain in the All India
Insitute of Medical Science where they have been isolated since they were
forcefully removed against their will from dharna when 500 police stormed
the sleeping protestors, late Wednesday night. Medha has been denied
contact with any visitors by administration and the police, a gesture
which is in total violation of her democratic rights. Moreover, it has
since become apparent that a case under Section 309: Attempt to commit
suicide, has been filed against her, while it remains unclear whether the
same charge has also been filed on other people fasting. Similarly,
several charges have been filed against about 25 other persons.

The charges filed were under sections:
– 186: Obstructing public servants in discharge of public function
– 332: Voluntary causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty
– 353: Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of
his duty
– 147: For rioting
– 149: Unlawful assembly
– 309: Attempt to commit suicide
– 34: Common intention

Medha’s response to this shenanigan has been that, "Those who commit
crimes always put the blame on others. This is not the first time such a
thing has happened with the Andolan. So many farmers are committing
suicide all over the country. Will the government and the police blame the
farmers? Rather, it is clear that the blame lies with the state. If the
state files a case against me, I will file a case of murder against the
state: murder of the Narmada Valley, murder of humanity, murder of
justice!"

Following the directions of the Prime Minister on Tuesday, a delegation of
Ministers returned today from the Narmada Valley after having gone there
to visit some of the affected families at and under 121.92m within the
Sardar Sarovar Dam affected area, to assess the veracity of claims that
Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) have been sufficiently completed for
the next stage of construction. The team, which included Union Minister
for Water Resources, Prof Saif-ud-din Soz, Union Minister for Social
Justice and Empowerment, Smt Meira Kumarji, and Minister of State in the
Prime Minster’s Office, Shri Prithviraj Chauhan, was met by hundreds of
Project Affected Families (PAFs) who had travelled more than 100
kilometres to come to Avalda to make their voices heard. The anger,
frustration and persistent hope of the affected people were embodied in
various forms, from speeches to written applications, to slogan shouting
and songs.

The team didn’t manage to visit the 100% adivasis villages in the affected
zone, where families have had to face submergence without rehabilitation
every monsoon for more than a decade now, which the NBA had strongly
recommended. However, there was so much that took place in one day and so
much that revealed itself to the three Ministers regardless. Through the
repetition of accounts from the affected people, whether regarding the
paucity of basic amenities, like drinking water, electricity or sewage
lines, the insufficiency of house-plots at R&R sites, or lack of R&R sites
at all, it was made blatantly clear that the law is being flouted. The
high participation of PAFs in the programme, considering that Narmada
Valley Development Authority informed no one of this visit, is proof
enough of the severity of problems in resettlement. The fact that every
single R&R site is empty except for a handful of families is further
testimony. And that those entitled to land for land are yet to be allotted
cultivable and irrigable land makes discrepancy between the official
policies of R&R and reality a lucid fact.

The Team had a meeting with Shri Prashant Bhusahan, Shri B. D. Sharma,
Shri Denzil Saldana, Ashish Mandloi and Clifton D’Rozario (the latter two
being members of Narmada Bachao Andolan). [Please find attached a
statement released by the independent observers, Advocate Prashant Bhushan
and Dr. B. D. Sharma.] In this meeting the Ministers were briefed on the
legal implications and scale of human tragedy that would befall the
villages affected at and below 121.92m, should the construction of the dam
not be suspended immediately. It was made clear that the PAFs have been
absolutely relentless in writing letters to the officials and the GRA to
seek redressal of their problems but that the GRA does not visit the R&R
sites or the original villages and hence has no real sense of what is
actually happening. Indeed, even though there are grievances related to
those affected below 110.64m, clearance was still given for the dam to be
further raised to 121.92m, which exemplifies how out of touch those who
are accountable for clearance of each stage of construction are with the
ground reality of the villages.
Having returned to Delhi today, the team are currently discussing their
findings and will further consider the issues they have faced with the
Prime Minister, subsequent to which they will then release their report.

In the anticipation of the findings from the delegation, the dharna of
project affected persons and concerned protestors being held at Jantar
Mantar, New Delhi, has remained vibrantly alive and active with a
multitudinous stream of supporters continuing to visit the peaceful
protest in its fourth week and convey their solidarity with the cause and
concern for the health and rights of both Medha and Jamsinghbhai.
There has been an absolute outpouring of international and national
support towards the movement to stop further construction on the Sardar
Sarovar Dam, with spontaneous protests, dharnas and solidarity fasts
bursting out all across India. On Thursday marches in Bangalore and
Plachimada were accompanied by a 24hr fast in Pune, with 50 organisations
involved culminating in the submission of a petition to the Chief Minister
of Maharashtra with almost 400 signatures. Yesterday 150 people worldwide
signed up for a one-day solidarity fast, simultaneously undertaken by a
peoples’ sit-in fast in Chennai, a symbolic hunger-strike in Bangalore,
which was accompanied by various cultural performances, and a one-day fast
in both Jalna and Aurangabad where Ex MP Dr Bapu Kaldate, Justice (Ret’d)
Narendra Chapalgaonkar, and Ex MLA Dr T. S. Patil all took part.
Solidarity protests were also held in Kolkata, a 1.5km silent rally in
Itanagar (Arunchal Pradesh) and a rally of exposure through handouts and
petitions in amidst Mumbai’s mad rush-hour, outside Churchgate station. In
Raipur, Chhatisgarh, a one day dharna was held by “Nadi Ghati Morcha” and
17 other mass organisations including social movements like CMM, CPI,
PUCL, Adivasi Dalit Morcha, Jan Adhikar Group, Peoples’ Alliance in
Central East India and many other civil society organisations. They
integrated their various angles of support to produce a comprehensive
memorandum of signatures which they have submitted to the President
through the Govenor. At the same time in Delhi, some 500 students from St
Columbus, St Mary and other schools, visited the dharna site at Jantar
Mantar itself.
Today, more than 200 people in Bangalore and more than 400 people, under
the banner of the National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements, in Kolkata
undertook relay hunger fasts. A one day fast was held in both Latur and
Parbhani, with rallies, dharnas and hunger fasts being held in Shimla with
Nadi Gheti Mon, Palampur with Narrachna Manch, and Mandi, all three
villages within Himanchal Pradesh. The Mumbai supporters continued their
exposure to the rush-hour trainstation masses today and will keep going
each day until the dharna is concluded.
So far, more than 2000 people worldwide, and counting, have signed an
online petition (http://petitions.aidindia.org/narmada/) in protest
against the construction of the dam. The Open Challenge to Sardar Sarovar
Dams (http://petitions.aidindia.org/narmada_petition/), too, is growing at
a phenomenal rate, with over 600 signatures from prominent scientists and
engineers from across the world. The Open Challenge is a slamming
denounciation of power generation figures having been glamorized by the
SSP engineers in the Indian Express, where they had claimed that the SSP
dam will generate Rs 2500 crores of power every year. The challenge
condemns the advertising of unrealizable benefits in terms of power and
irrigation and the luring of their nation to increase the dam’s height to
121.9 mts. despite the fact that 35,000 families are still living in the
submergence zone without rehabilitation. It states that the signatories
"take a strong exception to the misuse of science for promoting human
rights violation" and challenges the SSP engineers to withdraw the
statement that 3.42 crore units electricity will be produced daily by SSP
dam in a public apology, or sign a legally enforceable bond to pay the
shortfall below Rs. 2500 crore every year, a loss estimated to be about
Rs. 1500-2000 crores a year in the initial years before the canal network
is completed and rising to Rs. 2300 crores a year once all the waters are
diverted for irrigation purposes to the canals of the Narmada river valley
projects.
Similar petitions, memorandums and letters of concern have poured through
to the concerned authorities, and many more words of support have been
passed through to the movement in solidarity from a myriad of
organisations and individuals, just several of which include Rivers’
Group, BAPAEC, Transboundary River Group, Centre for Interdisciplinary
Studies Environment and Development - Bangalore, Water and Energy Users’
Federation - Nepal, PRASHANT, Arunchal Pradesh Citizens’ Rights, Child
Rights and You, and the International Farakka Committee. Such a magnitude
of response has really built up a substantial resistance to the unjust
submergence of the settled communities in the Narmada Valley; an injustice
which won’t be consequential to the complacency and apathy of the people.

The ministers who have visited the valley can no longer deny the state of
rehabilitation. The decision to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam
to 121.92m must be rescinded and further construction suspended since the
rehabilitation of PAFs incompliance with the NWDTA, Supreme Court
judgements and State policies has not taken place. Until then, Medha,
Jamsinghbhai and Bhagwatibai, along with the number of people who have
joined them, will continue their indefinite fast until such action is
taken.

Dipti Bhatnagar Yogini Khanolkar Noorji Padvi Kailash Awasya