NARMADA BACHAO Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar on Friday announced that the NBA would form suicide squads and ask the people affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project not to vacate their villages come what may.
Talking to The Hindustan Times on telephone from Badwani, where the NBA is currently holding a crucial meeting, Ms Patkar said, “I stand by my statement of last year that if the height of the dam is raised even by an inch from 88 metres without review, I
will sacrifice my life.”
She said the details of the action plan would be chalked out over the next few days.
Ms Patkar said the Supreme Court verdict was contradictory. On the one hand it says that the States should adhere to Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) award and on the other, it says that construction of the dam should start immediately.
But according to the NWDT award, the affected families should be rehabilitated at least six months before, she said. Moreover, the NBA has already proved that the NWDT award is being violated, she added.
She said the NBA would intensify its agitation. “Where will these people go,” she asked, adding that even Chief Minister Digvijay Singh had admitted that there was no land to rehabilitate the affected people in MP. Ms Patkar said the NBA would fight for
justice till the very end.
For the NBA, which has been spearheading an agitation for more than one-and-a-half decades for what it claims the rightful demands of the lakhs of Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP)-displaced persons, the Supreme Court verdict may not be the end of the road.
If Ms Patkar’s emotional call to NBA activists to be prepared for a “fight to finish” is any indication, the agitation for the rehabilitation of thousands of affected people may aggravate in the near future.
About 150-200 activists from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat are participating in the NBA meeting being held at some undisclosed location in Badwani district.
