NEW DELHI: Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar on Tuesday said the notice given to the Andolan by the Supreme Court on charge of `sedition' in a public interest litigation application was a challenge to people's movements. "The notice has not been received by us but it has already been given a lot of propaganda and publicity."

"We consider that the politically-motivated notice is a warning to movements who are challenging the usurpation of people's rights and their natural resources at the hands of national and multinational corporate powers. It is ironical that while the Ambanis, Jindals and Mittals are given red carpet treatment and the government is handing them over the land and water of the country, the tribals and farmers are either shot dead in Kalinga Nagar or face submergence," she said addressing a press conference here.

Answering questions, Ms. Patkar said the NBA will file its response to the notice when it receives it. "We are ready for any enquiry. If there is anything illegal we are ready to go to jail. It will be nothing new for us. They want to finish the moral support to the NBA and want that the development model of the Government should not be questioned. Rahul Banerjee, named in the petition, was never an activist of the NBA and has never given or taken money from NBA."

Sitting under a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi at the Gandhi Peace Foundation, Ms. Patkar said the NBA had never raised a stone at anyone. "Our deficit finances and sources of income are an open book. We get small donations from supporters all over India and from funds raised by the people in villages in the valley. The charges against us are the same rehashed, imaginary, twisted and half-baked ones made seven years ago by the same V.K. Saxena who was booked by the Ahmedabad police for assault on me at a post-Godhra riots meeting I was participating in. He was also involved in the assault on Mallika Sarabhai.''

She said the struggle for the people of the Narmada valley would continue despite the court order and Prime Minister's recommendation not to stop the construction of the Narmada dam in Gujarat. "The Court did not adjudicate in the matter nor heard us. The Shunglu report was handed to us at 11 a.m. and the hearing was at 2 p.m. without giving the affected persons time to study the report and respond. The next hearing has been set for end of monsoon season, and the Madhya Pradesh Government has been given further time to complete rehabilitation."

She said the Shunglu report could not stand the test of any social and scientific research. "We had hoped that the former Comptroller and Auditor General would have brought out the truth on rehabilitation within the framework of law and justice in clear terms but it has not done so." Ms. Patkar said the report, contradictory as it was, did not vindicate the stand taken by the Secretary of the Rehabilitation and Resettlement sub-group and the Chairman of the Narmada Control Authority for allowing raising the height of the Narmada dam as rehabilitation up to 121.92 metres had not been done.

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