MAH. OFFICIALS COULD NOT SHOW CULTIVABLE LAND TO TRIBALS EVEN AT 11th
HOUR:RESETTLEMENT ON WAR FOOTING NEEDED ; SATYAGRAHA CONTINUES

On May 20, the fourteenth day of the Bhoomi Haq Satyagraha (Land Rights Satyagraha) by the displaced tribals of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) in Maharashtra in Nandurbar district, the government could not show the cultivable resettlement lands even for the limited number of oustees despite the discussions and assurances by the senior state officials including K.S. Vatsa, Secretary Rehabilitation, Kishor Gajjbhiye, the Divisional Commissioner, the Collector Nandurbar and others.

The discussions were held on May 18 at the Satyagraha place near village Somaval, in which the officials assured to expedite the resettlement and planning and implementation. After assessing the every list which was incomplete and full of mistakes the officials directed the district administration urgent steps towards correction and completion of the village-wise lists of the oustees, land identification with fullest possible participation of the Narmada Bachao Andolan. The same team of officials will hold the review meeting on May 27 at the Satyagraha site itself.

However, after the tribals visited some of the private lands earmarked for purchase by the government for the purpose of resettlement, it was found that either the lands were uncultivable, without any facility for irrigation or the private owners were not ready to sell these lands to the government. One such instance was at the village Kalambsare, where the administration claimed the availability of land on a large scale. There the survey teams of oustees found that the farmers were not prepared to sell their lands. The lands are spread out in fragments and no village site can be accommodated there. If such is the case with the availability of private lands, why can^�t the state government pursue its own cabinet decision provide the degraded forest land for the resettlement of all the oustees a in one group, as per provisions in the Narmada water Dispute Tribunal (NWDT), the tribals ask.

Despite all the cooperation from the NBA , the government has been lethargic and the entire process lacks any political or administrative will. While the government has shown the land, which was uncultivable and worse, not at all available, it is dragging its feet regarding allotting and resettling the people on the land at Vadchchil, which the people have already chosen and government too had agreed. People from Nimgavhan, Surung and Comkhedi are to be resettled here. Similar is the fate of the land at Javda village. The administration has not yet completed the lists of the ^�declared^� oustees. The NBA calls upon the state government to complete the resettlement on war footing of the tribal families who will be affected by 110 meters of the dam during the monsoon of 2004.

The discussions

The discussions focused on the assessment of the extent of implementation of the cabinet decisions of January 21 led to a conclusion that there was an unjustifiable delay in finalising the record which would give the final number of Project Affected Families to be used as a basis for rehabilitation planning. The left-outs, whose number is in hundreds, are adivasis who cannot survive without land for rehabilitation they are entitled to. The senior officers took stock of the enormity of the scale of impact this monsoon as also the large amount of pending work, and directed that steps should be taken at war-footing within next week or two. It has once again became clear that not less than 1200 to 1500 adivasi families in Maharashtra state alone will face submergence of their houses, fields, forest and land adequate and appropriate is still not offered to them during this year^�s monsoon. The Secretary Rehabilitation, who represented Maharashtra at the interstate level meetings held in January and March 2004 which decided raising of the dam height from 100 to 110 m, was strongly questioned as to how could he not oppose the decision. It was obvious from the records presented by Yogini Khanolkar, Gitanjali and other activists that the incomplete list and underestimation of the number of PAFs that was presented led to the situation of crisis for the Adivasis not just legal but human.

Senior activist Keshav Sikka Vasave was critical of the undue delay in finding land for resettlement. If not found to be adequate, the officials agreed to make a proposal for denuded forest land, in lieu of 1452 ha deforested / diverted in 1990 itself but not distributed to the PAFs, remaining unused. The activists including Noorji Kalsha and Vanaka Detka, with Medha Patkar expressed dissatisfaction over the fact that in spite of the state cabinets decision to send a proposal to the Central Government, within 15 days after January 20th the same was not made. The adivasis who are fully participating in inspecting land and planning villagewise rehabilitation, are determined to continue the Satyagraha till all issues are resolved and action taken. They have demanded an urgent meeting of the Joint Resettlement Planning Committee at the site, at the earliest.