The Hindu : National : End to World Bank funding sought

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 30, 2004

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National

End to World Bank funding sought

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 29. Several people's groups and non-governmental organisations have demanded a moratorium on World Bank funding in the country. The groups criticised the ``enormous and severe'' dispossession and displacement brought about by the ``destructive'' projects funded by it. The bank, they said, must take care of the people affected by the projects funded by it.

A delegation that met World Bank officials, sought the withdrawal of funding from strategic sectors such as power and water. It wanted the bank to eventually withdraw from the country.

Holding the World Bank responsible for financing and pushing the Sardar Sarovar Dam project, Kamla Yadav, an activist from Madhya Pradesh, said not a single displaced person in the State's 193 villages had been given land till date. Since the affected people had not been resettled, they continued to live on the edges of the reservoir now swollen with silt. As a result, there had been a large number of deaths in the Narmada valley.

A Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) activist, Philip, demanded that the World Bank send a `mission' to the valley to ascertain the real scenario.

Raijibhai from Gadher village in Gujarat said that people in 19 affected villages of the State had been sent to settlement colonies 16 years ago when the World Bank was still funding the project. But thousands were yet to receive land and other benefits due to them. Many of those who got pieces of land found that they were smaller than promised or bad.

Mangat Ram, affected by the Maheshwar Dam in Madhya Pradesh, pointed out that the World Bank had not taken any lessons from the human rights disaster that they funded in the Narmada valley and continued to have a presence there — either directly or indirectly. The World Bank was also considering funding the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC), which was building the Omkareshwar and Narmada Sagar dams, both without any plans to rehabilitate the affected population or provide it alternative land. It was clear that the World Bank intended to continue with its policies that decimated communities and the environment. If it was not prepared to withdraw on its own, there would be rebellion all over the country to force them out.

While the groups affirmed their support for the implementation of the extractive Industries Review recommendations in full, several activists raised the issue of the plight of the displaced indigenous and tribal people in East Parej coal mines under the Coal Sector Environmental and Social Mitigation Project.

The delegation comprised representatives from Mines, Minerals and People (MM&P), National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers and Land Rights, Samata, Narmada Bachao Andolan, Jan Sangharsh Morcha, Delhi Forum, Citizens Concern for Dams and Development, South Asia Networks of Dams, Rivers and People, Jan Sangharsh Morcha, Nimad Malwa Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan.

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