New Delhi, Apr 2 (UNI) Criticising the “callous” attitude of the UPA Government to pleas of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) to stop construction work on the Sardar Sarovar Dam, NBA convenor Medha Patkar today said the time had come to launch a ”decisive struggle to achieve our objectives”.
Expressing her shock over the Government’s ‘silence’ over the pleas of the NBA activists, who have been on an indefinite dharna here since March 17 to protest a decision by the Narmada Control Authority to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam to 121.92 m, Ms Patkar, addressing reporters here, said, ”despite our repeated pleas to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to stop construction on the Sardar Sarovar Dam and ensure proper rehabilitation of the oustees, the Government has been maintaining a queer silence in the matter.” ”This is nothing but a mockery of the Democracy. So the time has come to intensify our struggle for the fulfilment of our objectives,” she noted.
Lending support to the struggle of the NBA, at a public hearing of the grievances of the Narmada oustees, were noted writer Arundhati Roy, actress Nandita Das, Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande, social activist Surendra Mohan and Professor Iftikhar Gilani.
Giving a two-day ultimatum to the UPA Government and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to respond to its demands, including scrapping work on the Sardar Sarovar Dam and full rehabilitation of the displaced families, the NBA said all its activists would go on a 12 hour hunger strike from 0800 hours on April 4, in a bid to force the Government to listen to its pleas.
The activists would be joined in the hunger strike by Arundhati Roy, social activist Surendra Mohan and several others.
Three activists of the NBA, including Medha Patkar, are already on an indefinite fast since March 29.
”Today is the fifth day of their fast and their condition has deteriorated,”NBA activist Jayasen said.
Speaking on the occasion, professor Iftikhar Gilani said the need of the hour was for all those who had been at the recieving end of the government’s policies to ”unitedly fight to obtain our rights”.
”Till all the oppressed fight unitedly to obtain their rights, it is impossible for a movement to achieve its objectives in the modern scenario,”Mr Gilani said.
Endorsing his views, Arundhati Roy said,”In today’s scenario where corporates are increasingly influencing media content, it is foolhardy to depend on the media to take up cudgels on your behalf.” ”In such a scenario, all of us have to recognise our own power to achieve our objectives,”she said.

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For Narmada situation see: http://www.narmada.org/
And http://www.narmada.org/nba-press-releases/march-2006/ninthday.html
Hindustan Times Correspondent
Bhopal, March 26, 2006
STATE BHARATIYA Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Anil Madhav Dave is embarking upon aerial expedition of Narmada on Monday with the objective to study the river course, match his findings vis-à-vis the Survey of India data, the deforestation resulting in a threat to the river and society. He will submit a comprehensive report to the State Government.

Wreckage of school destroyed by Narmada dam project
Talking to journalists Anil Dave said he would take a round of the river in a four-seater aircraft from March 27. A co-pilot would accompany him. Dave himself has an amateur pilot licence.
He said such an air journey to study the river course and its catchment was being undertaken for the first time. Other firsts in the voyage include its being undertaken without any foreign or Government assistance and by an amateur pilot.
Dave said he had noticed that Narmada course and catchment were changing and it would have a far-reaching impact on the river and the State.
Out of 19 districts the river flowed through 10 districts had the forest area greatly reduced owing to felling of trees and environmental reasons, he said.
He said his journey had spiritual importance too as he would get a glimpse of Amarkantak, Chaunsath Yogini, Bandrabhan, Omkareshwar, Maheshwar and Bharuch temples.
Besides, it could be termed adventurous too. The terrain from Jabalpur to Amarkantak was such that it had many disturbances from the aviation point of view. He said one of his friends who was an industrialist and was manufacturing bio fertiliser had sponsored the survey.
Giving details about the programme he said he would fly to Jabalpur from Bhopal on March 27 morning. He would fly to Amarkantak from Jabalpur in the afternoon and return to Jabalpur in the evening. The next day he would fly to Bhopal in the morning. He would then fly to Indore from Bhopal in the afternoon.
He would cover the Indore-Baroda stretch on March 29. He would come back to Indore on the March 30 morning from where he would fly to Bhopal in the afternoon.

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LETTER FROM ARUNDHATI ROY TO DIGVIJAY SINGH, CHIEF MINISTER OF MADHYA PRADESH
Fax Number: 0755 – 540501
To
The Chief Minister
Government of Madhya Pradesh
Bhopal 462004
June 15th 2002
Dear Mr Digvijay Singh
Thank you for your letter.
I am a little puzzled and embarrassed that you chose to write to me and not to those who have been petitioning you for your attention for the past 25 days. Today is the 26th day of the hunger fast of the four NBA activists demanding rehabilitation for those who are being displaced by the Maan dam. Two days ago you tried to arrest them. They escaped and are now underground. This correspondence takes place in the shadow of their death or permanent debilitation.
First, I would like to clarify in no uncertain terms that I am not a member of the NBA. I do not represent the Andolan, I cannot and do not wish to negotiate on its behalf. I am merely someone who has taken the trouble to find out what is actually happening on the ground (as opposed to on paper) in the Narmada Valley. And frankly, the more I learn, the more appalled I am.
The facts in your letter are incorrect and misleading. I have passed your letter on to Dr Nandini Sundar who was a member of the Tribunal headed by Justice G.G. Loney which published a report on the Maan project. I’m enclosing her point by point reply. Further to what I have already written, I have only a few general points to make.
You say it is not government policy to buy land and “allot” it to adivasi people. But this is not true. Under Section 3.2 (a) and (b) in the MP rehabilitation Policy for the Narmada valley, it is exactly what the government is supposed to do.
Your letter suggests that everything is as it should be – that the government has dealt fairly and generously with the people who are to be displaced. This is not the case. I have traveled to the Maan villages. I have spoken to people. I was told about the outrageous manner in which cash compensation was distributed. It is illegal even according to your own policy to distribute cash compensation like this.
It is simply not true that people were given the choice between land for land and cash. Most people said they were made to feel that they could take cash (I wouldn’t go so far as to call it ‘compensation’) or get nothing at all. Many said they took cash because they were threatened with legal action and forced eviction. Many others did so for the simple reason that they were not aware of their rights – the Narmada Bachao Andolan was not active in the area at the time.
The stark fact is that displaced people cannot buy land with the special rehabilitation grant given by the government because land is too expensive. It is the government’s responsibility to make up the difference between the value of the land to be purchased and the cash that was illegally distributed. The people, now aware of their entitlement, have offered to return every paisa they have received from the government, in return for land.
Their demands, like the demands of the hundreds of thousands of others, have been ignored. Paltry cash ‘compensation’ to subsistence farmers, most of whom are already neck deep in debt to money lenders, is only a short detour on the road to destitution and penury. We all know that.
Now your government has bulldozed buildings, destroyed hand-pumps in an effort to forcibly evict people from their homes. This was the immediate provocation for the NBA’s indefinite hunger fast. Even now there appears to be no accurate account of how many families will be affected.
In the light of all this, your government’s much-publicized Dalit Agenda – like its rehabilitation policy for displaced people- is just a meaningless piece of paper. Hundreds of thousands of Dalits and Adivasis have been and will continue to be displaced without rehabilitation by the 29 dams (in various stages of completion) that you have planned on the Narmada.
To respect the human rights of the ‘oustees’ of one dam would put your government in the untenable position of having set a precedent for respecting human rights for the rest. And this, I can imagine is not a moral problem so much as a logistical one.
Your government has to choose between implementing its policies and protecting human rights. Obviously, it has chosen to proceed with its elaborate project of social engineering, banking on the fact that public opinion will, as it always does, sink into the bewildering swamp that stretches between what governments say and what they do.
In effect, the fragile communities of Dalits and adivasis which your ‘Bhopal Document’ claims to protect, are being systematically, mercilessly crushed. Unfortunately, we are driven to have this public conversation under terrifying circumstances, when every hour and every day pushes those on fast into a more critical stage.
And lest you misunderstand, let me say that while I do not support or encourage the idea of a 22year old adivasi girl starving herself to death to make her voice heard, I completely understand the urgency of her situation and am at a loss for words when she says to me “What else can I do?” I’d like to point her question to you – what else can she do? What else can she do when she and her community stand to lose everything they ever had?
When I spoke to Ram Kuar, I thought I should tell her that even if she didn’t die, to go so long without food might make her an invalid for life.
She replied ,”the government is stealing all our future meals away from all of us. If I stop eating now, perhaps we will be heard. Perhaps the rest of us will be saved.”
The simple fact is that if there was no problem, why would the people be so agitated? Why on earth would young Ram Kuar be risking her life to demand justice? There can be no greater insult to someone who is doing that than suggesting they are doing it for some base motive or for no real reason.
In your letter you say that ‘government buildings’ are being demolished so that door and window frames are re-cycled and used elsewhere. You say nothing about forcibly sealing hand-pumps and destroying water sources, exposing people and cattle to unbearable thirst at the height of summer. Unfortunately, people cannot be re-cycled like door and window frames.
Finally, in what is perhaps the most disturbing part of your letter, you suggest that adivasi people on a fast unto death, demanding their rights to life, to livelihood, to water are “harming the interests of the tribal community”. What could you possibly mean by that?
It really saddens me to have to write this letter to you. Truly. Because you’re a good Chief Minister on paper – can you not match that with some real re-thinking, some real action on the ground?
Arundhati Roy

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