Brutal lathi charge in Badwani on farmers demanding right to land-based rehabilitation.

MP and Gujarat CMs resort to false rhetoric about rehabilitation of Sardar Sarovar dam oustees to push the dam ahead!

Hundreds of farmers affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) being built in Gujarat gathered here at the Collectorate yesterday, Dec 17, to protest the illegal cash compensation that the MP government is trying to disburse to affected families, instead of giving cultivable land which is mandated by the Supreme Court. Men, women and children arrived at the Collectorate in over 50 bullock-carts as well as in other vehicles. They tried to seek an appointment with the Collector, Mr. Vishwa Mohan Upadhyaya, to urge him to hold a dialogue and to keep the promises he has made to the people in previous meetings. However, it seems that the Collector disappeared from the scene, so the protestors moved to the office of the Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA), where, without warning, the police resorted to a brutal lathi charge, injuring farmers who were demanding their rights, and even injuring an ETV cameraman and breaking his camera.

The SP, Ms. Asha Mathur, was not present at the scene, but it is possible that she issued orders to the police to lathi charge the protestors. Jagannath Patidar of Kundiya village, Hirdarambhai of Khaparkheda village and Natthubhai of Sondul village are among the worst-injured farmers. Many women including Kamla Yadav of Chota Barda village, Yashodabai of Bijasen village and Lilabai were also injured. At least 16 farmers are badly hurt and were hospitalised.

These brave farmers of the Narmada Valley, who have been fighting for the last 20 years, have been asserting their right to land-based rehabilitation, which they are eligible for and which the Supreme Court itself has mandated, in its earlier order of October 18, 2000 and also in its most recent order of March 15, 2005. The affected farmers and their major sons are all entitled to minimum 2 hectares of cultivable land. However, while the M.P. government claims that it will rehabilitate oustees as per the SC�s orders, and will give land-for-land to eligible farmers, on the ground there has been blatant violation of this order. M.P. has not shown cultivable land to oustees, the government waste land shown is rocky, uncultivable and encroached, and the government refuses to purchase cultivable private land for rehabilitation. Instead, they are trying to lure and force farmers to accept cash compensation without offering land to eligible oustees. These compensation cheques are taken to villages by specially-appointed officials of Badwani and Dhar districts even in the dead of the night, and corruption is running rampant. The farmers were gathered here today to demand an end to this illegal distribution of cash. This lathi charge on them is merely to intimidate them, but the people vow not to be cowed down in the face of these cowardly acts by the state, and are continuing to sit in front of the NVDA office demanding their rights. More bullock-carts are arriving by the hour.

The Times of India reported on Dec 16, 2005 that the Chief Ministers of M.P. and Gujarat held a meeting where the newly-selected M.P. CM, Shivraj Chauhan assured Modi that M.P. would rehabilitate 14,000 oustees by December 31, following which the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) would be approached for approval to take the dam height ahead from the present height of 110.64 metres. It is saddening but not shocking to note how indiscriminately the highest powers in the state are resorting to such falsehood and exhibiting utter contempt for the Apex Court�s orders in order to cheat the oustees of their rights and just to push the dam ahead through illegal and un-institutional means. It is obvious to anyone that their claim of resettling and rehabilitating 14,000 families from Madhya Pradesh by December 31st, 2005 is a farcical claim.

It appears that such blatant violation of rights is possible since the monitoring body, the NCA, is not taking any action against these violations, since there seems to be latent support of all to push the dam ahead, at the risk of drowning thickly-populated communities, thousands of hectares of very fertile land, pucca houses, shops, temples and mosques, schools and dispensaries. The farmers, adivasis, labourers, artisans, traders and even fisher-folk are therefore agitated and we demand an urgent intervention by the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi if they really stand by the farmers and not the killers, the governments of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

All those who have investigated this conflict on Narmada�s most controversial dam, Sardar Sarovar, know that even Gujarat has not been able to give good, cultivable land to its own dam-affected families, and thousands of families at the resettlement sites in Gujarat have constantly been demanding but have not got land replacement.