21 houses submerged, 20 houses encircled with water in Village Khedi GRA Hearings conclude, Maan dam Oustees wait for justice

Twenty one houses belonging to the adivasi families of the Maan area were submerged yesterday in Village Khedi Balwadi - the first village to be submerged in permanent pondage by the Maan Project. Twenty more were encircled by water, even as the waters rose behind the Maan dam. The process of impoundment of waters began in early July when the state government decided to close the sluice gates. Since then, although there has been very sparse rainfall, with only few intermittent outpours, the waters began to collect behind the dam. The water reached close to the houses soon after the 1st of August, but since the state government refused to obey the orders of the GRA, the people were not allowed access to their houses and village and continued to sit at the Dhar Collectorate for the next week, as the waters continued to rise.

By the time the people came to the village on the 8th of July, the houses in two were almost fully submerged and one hamlet that was close to the riverside but on a hillock had been encircled with waters so that the only way to reach the houses there is by swimming through the waters.

It may be noted that it was only after a 35 day dharna at Bhopal and a 29 day fast by four persons, a reluctant Madhya Pradesh government was compelled to order the Grievance Redressal Authority to ensure the rehabilitation of the affected people by the 31st of July, 2002, and to appoint two experts – senior journalist Shri Prabhash Joshi and Ex – Commissioner Scheduled Castes and Tribes to support this process. The experts traveled through the area, visiting the villages, talking to the people, and holding formal hearings, evaluating whether the pittances in cash given to the adivasis here in the early 1990's was due process and a valid fulfillment of their legal entitlements or whether it was a travesty of justice, law and policy. Yet, even while the visit of the experts was on, the administration closed the sluice gates of the dam in early July. The day after the senior experts left, the administration entered Village Khedi Balwadi and evicted the adivasis present , beating and assaulting them, looting their jewellery, separating women from their children and splintering families. The people carried to distant camps, and kept under police surveillance escaped to sit on dharna first in Indore and then at Bhopal. Finally the GRA gave an order first on the 31st of July and then again on the 3rd of August asking the affected people be reinstated in their villages, and that the police force be removed. The state government and the district administration resisted this and finally allowed the people to come back to their villages on the 8th of August only after their homes were submerged.

Having created a situation of submergence and dispossession by first locking the sluice gates, then ruthlessly ousting the people, and then finally delaying the implementation of the GRA orders by nearly a week thus denying the adivasis access to their houses until the houses were submerged, the administration is now denying the adivasi families, children et.al even temporary accommodation in the tin sheds at the Khedi relief camp. The affected people and the Narmada Bachao have responded to this government callousness, by firstly petitioning the GRA for what is certainly the right of any oustee whose lands and homes are being submerged without rehabilitation, and secondly by deciding to undertake the setting up of a camp and accommodation for the affected people at Khedi with their own resources.

Meanwhile, the hearings of the Grievance Redressal Authority concluded today in Dhar and the wait for the judgements on these cases and for justice has begun. It is not yet clear yet in what time frame, the judgements will be delivered, but since the GRA was to ensure the rehabilitation of the affected people by the 31st of July 2002, it has to be very soon.

But spirits in the affected area are very high and despite the extreme cruelty and callousness shown to the affected people by the administration and the state government in the last month, the adivasis of the Maan area led by the indomitable team of young women including Syeda, Rangu, Ramkuwar, Rali and others stand united in their resolve to fight to the finish the struggle for their right for the restoration of livelihoods and against unjust displacement.

Although the administration has claimed that it has closed the gates of the Maan dam in order to conserve waters for irrigation in the command area , it is known that the canal network is far from complete. This winter will also unfold a different type of ravaging of the environment and adivasis, this time in the command, if waters flow through its first few villages, on lands that are highly undulating and mountaineous, stripping the light soils of this area with flow based irrigation. It may be noted that the Detailed Project Report of July,1982 notes that "the command of the Man Project has 30.6% deep soils, 18.77% moderately deep soils and 42.49% area is having shallow to very shallow soil with cobbles and grovels and are unsuitable for irrigation in real sense".

Moreover, if we look at the analysis of the command area by land irrigability classes given in the DPR, we find that the proportion of shallow and eroded lands in the command is 44.73%, that of lands not suitable for irrigation is 7.24 % and that of hillocks and forest is 9.63 %. That is 62 % of the command is simply not amenable for irrigation, an irrigation that is being created at such great human cost.

It may also be noted that the Draft Appraisal Report for the World Bank for the Maan Project mentions that "In the command with very steep slopes, land grading and leveling cannot be done. So various -- water management practices will have to be done by the farmers at their own cost". Therefore, the entire question and responsibility for sustainable use of shallow lands marginally suitable for irrigation has been left entirely to the unsuspecting command area farmer's initiative and investment.

There is no doubt that in the coming year, even as adivasis displaced by the Maan Project struggle to restore their lives and livelihoods, and hundreds of acres of lands, including some very rich and irrigated lands are lost forever in the pondage of the dam, adivasi families in the command, never very enthusiastic about the dam, may come to fresh and possibly adverse evaluations of the command waters.

As we stand at a moment that is a critical juncture in the life of any irrigation project, witnessing the first impoundment of the waters, the submergence of the homes and the lands of hundreds of families, and the cruel and ruthless uprootment without the rehabilitation of those affected by the Project , we wait to see how this irrigation will water the command and impact it in diverse, favorable or adverse, intended or unintended ways, ( that is if the water is actually not taken away by the cement factories in and around Jeerabad), it is clear that the larger lessons to be learnt from the irrigation of the command area slated for the near future, will be as important to our understanding of irrigation policies, the control of communities over resources and of democratic practice as the lessons we are learning from the indomitable hope and determination and relentless struggle of the affected adivasis of Maan in the submergence area challenging an authoritarian, unrelenting state.