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NBA for setting up new tribunal on SSP

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, JULY 12. The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) announced today that it would be forced to resort to ``Jal Samarpan'' (sacrifice in water) if further construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam was permitted without a comprehensive review of the project. It demanded that a new tribunal be set up to look into unresolved issues such as resettlement and rehabilitation of the affected communities.

The announcement came after Ms. Medha Patkar and eight others ended their eight day old fast at Domkhedi in Maharashtra and Jalsindhi in Madhya Pradesh. Ms. Patkar said at a public meeting in Domkhedi that people were prepared to confront the ``unjust submergence'' in their own houses and at the site of the satyagraha and warned that the Government ``should not repeat the farce of saving the satyagrahis and should not make false promises while conspiring to drown the people and their land.''

Ms. Patkar and the NBA have also appealed to the President of India to intervene in the matter. They also appealed to the Supreme Court, before which the NBA's writ petition challenging the Sardar Sarovar Project is being heard, to hold public hearings on the issue.

Ms. Patkar said there was an urgent need to change the colonial legacy of the judicial process. She said that decisions on large projects could only be taken if work on them was stayed until all the pending issues were settled.

The meeting addressed by Ms. Patkar and others was attended by representatives from villages in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, according to the NBA.

Also present were representatives of various organisations such as the Samajwadi Jan Parishad, the National Alliance of People's Movements, International Rivers Network, the Nari Samata Manch, the Girangao Sangharsha Samiti, the Students Christian Movement, the Association of India Development, Lok Samiti and students from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

Section  : National
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