Photo: A.M. Faruqui

SEEKING JUSTICE: People of around 400 villages affected by the dams being built across the Narmada staging a rally under the banner of the Narmada Bachao Andolan in Bhopal on Friday.

BHOPAL: People from over 400 villages affected by the six large dams being built in the Narmada valley took out a protest march here on Friday in the busy New market area. The protestors then joined a public rally organised by the Narmada Bachao Andolan to protest against the "destruction of the Narmada valley in the name of development."

NBA leaders Alok Agrawal and Chittaroopa Palit told mediapersons that a big section of those affected by the project are tribals and women. Mr. Agrawal warned the State Government that if it was bent upon "arbitrary and illegal exclusion" of several thousand families affected at the Maximum Water Level and Back-water level (BWL) of the Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar dams from rehabilitation, several Dharajis were likely to be the consequence. There was a possibility of thousands being washed away in the monsoon season.

Disastrous incident

Mr. Agrawal was referring to the disastrous incident at Dharaji village in Dewas district in April 2005 when a large number of pilgrims were washed away by water released from the Indira Sagar dam to generate electricity. About 5,000-6,000 houses have been excluded from the process of land acquisition and rehabilitation in the Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar areas.

Ms. Palit said the Narmada oustees had prayed to the High Court not to allow impoundment above 245 meters this year, and full closure of dam gates only after all oustees affected at the full reservoir level (FRL) and the BWL had been rehabilitated as per the requirements of the Rehabilitation Policy, Narmada Award and the Supreme Court directives. She said the Supreme Court had stipulated that oustees affected at both the FRL and the BWL would have to be treated at par, rehabilitated and resettled six months prior to submergence.

Benefits not delivered

The NBA leaders said the oustees demanded a public audit of the actual benefits of large dams already built in the valley. Even dams like Bargi, built 20 years ago, did not deliver adequate irrigation benefits. Similarly, there was no improvement in the electricity situation even though the Indira Sagar dam had been constructed at great speed. The State Government was speeding up the construction of the Maheshwar and Omkareshwar dams without meeting rehabilitation targets.

The NBA leaders said the issue of displacement of several million people cannot be avoided by the displacement and dispersal of affected people such as in Harsud, where people were forced to break their own homes. The NBA has demanded a CBI probe into the large-scale exclusion of many submergence families from the ambit of rehabilitation and acquisition in the Omkareshwar and Indira Sagar Projects. It has asked the State Government to immediately conduct surveys at Back-Water-Level in the Omkareshwar and Indira Sagar dam areas and to rehabilitate and compensate the affected people.

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