The Hindu : National : Penganga project in troubled waters

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 26, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

National

National

Penganga project in troubled waters

Meena Menon

Maharashtra villagers say fertile land will be submerged

Instead of dam, build barrages to prevent displacement: villagers
Dam received administrative approval in 1997

YAVATMAL: From a vantage point on a hill where the gram panchayat office of Datodi village is located, you can get a bird’s eye view of the Penganga valley with the low hills in the distance. The winter crop has already been planted and it is difficult to spot a vacant piece of land. The fields are lush with green gram and other crops and the Penganga river is only half a km away.

Residents of Datodi in Arni taluka of Yavatmal district, and nearby areas have, for years, used lift irrigation to water their fields.

The area has rich black cotton soil and people claim suicides here are fewer than elsewhere in Vidarbha. There is not much migration for jobs either. When the government proposed the Lower Penganga irrigation project in 1997, it sent tremors throughout the area. The project ran into severe opposition even before a single stone was laid. Planned to bring irrigation to Yavatmal and Chandrapur districts in Vidarbha, apart from Adilabad in Andhra Pradesh, the project has been stalled for 11 years. People contend that fertile land will be submerged for the project and in turn they will get nothing.

Proposed near Tadsawli in Ghatanji taluka the dam received administrative approval in June 1997. With an irrigation potential of 2,27,271 hectares, eight talukas of Yavatmal, two in Chandrapur and Adilabad in Andhra Pradesh will benefit.

Officials of the Lower Penganga Project division say that 46 villages will be submerged in five talukas. A total of 36,809 people will be displaced. The initial cost of the project was Rs 1402.43 crore but the revised cost is Rs. 3,329 crore.

The Supreme Court has cleared the project and the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) has accorded in principle approval on January 1, 2009. About 747 hectares of forests will be submerged. The project has also got environment clearance, with several conditions attached to it.

The officials admit that no construction has started and till December 31, 2008, only 82.16 hectares was acquired. The government denied that the execution of the project was delayed due to widespread opposition. In the rehabilitation plan, the government proposes various civic amenities for the affected persons as per the Maharashtra Rehabilitation Act, 1999. Land from the benefited zone will be granted to the affected persons.

The project needs 19,130 hectares of which 17,487 hectares is private land and 998 hectares is forest land and 645 hectares is government land. It will create an irrigation potential of 2,27,271 hectares of which 1,99,962 hectares is in Maharashtra and 27,309 hectares in Andhra Pradesh.

Most of the villagers have taken part in the over decade-long struggle against the dam. Jaan Denge, Zamin Nahin Denge (we will give our lives not our land) is their slogan. At Datodi, with a population of 1,100, people grow three crops a year and more than half the land is irrigated. Baburao Meshram and his three brothers own 25 acres. “We have no alternative to farming and even though we have problems with power, we get a good harvest,” he says.

People have shaved their heads in protest, beaten up project officials and stripped them in public and in July 2008, they took off their shirts for a 20-km “semi-nude” morcha.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat has written to the Prime Minister in February 2008 demanding that the project be not cleared as the social and environmental costs are too high.

Mubarak Tanwar, Prahlad Jagtap Patil Jagtap and others from the Committee against the Lower Penganga Project have been charged with attempted murder, dacoity and rioting and there are 1,000 cases against the villagers for protesting against the dam. The committee’s main argument is that there are no plans to give land for land for displaced farmers.

Mr. Jagtap and Mr. Tanwar allege that the government is lying about the actual figures of displacement and submergence. The Committee has proposed that instead of the dam, the government build barrages which will cost Rs. 500 crore and will not cause any displacement of people or submergence.

However, the government seems deaf to such suggestions. Even in the proposed irrigation project, a major portion, 62 per cent, comes from lift irrigation, says Mr. Jagtap. In other parts of the State, barrages are providing the much needed irrigation, so why not here, he asks. They claim that 95 villages (40 in Marathwada and 55 in Vidarbha) will be submerged apart from 20,000 hectares of fertile land and 1,100 hectares of forest land. Of the 95 villages, 46 are Adivasi dominated villages.

More than one lakh will be displaced. While they agree that 46 villages will be fully submerged, in the remaining villages people will lose their farmland.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National