Skip to main content

Narmada oustees' long-pending complaints: Apex court asks Gujarat, MP, Maharashtra to act urgently

By Our Representative
The Supreme Court’s Social Justice Bench has directed Grievances Authorities (GRAs) of three states – Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra -- to urgently dispose of all the pending complaints of Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) oustees lying before it by February 28, 2015. The apex court direction came follow another order on January 9 to the three state governments to immediately appoint judges for all the GRAs, whose primary job is to look into complaints of the oustees. Madhya Pradesh has to appoint five judges, Gujarat two and Maharashtra one.
At the same time, the apex court has asked the Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat governments to file compliance reports by March 10 with regard to about 3,000 complaints the GRAs have already looked into. The apex court will further hear on the petition, filed by anti-Narmada dam Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), on March 13.
Meanwhile, complying by the apex court order of January 9, the Madhya Pradesh government filed an affidavit conveying appointment of Justice (retired) AK Sharma, Justice (retired) SS Dwivedi, Justice (retired) Indrani Dutta, Justice (retired) IS Shrivastava and Justice (retired) GD Saxena. All five are retired judges of the High Court. The Gujarat and Maharashtra governments also committed to appoint judges for their GRAs.
The apex court directive came following a hearing of the applications filed by oustees from various affected villages and the NBA challenging the recent decision of the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) of June 12, 2014 to raise the height of the dam from 121.92 metres to 138.68 metres as unconstitutional and in violation of the Narmada Tribunal Award.
The NBA argued, the decision was also violative of the previous judgments of the Supreme Court, mandating that any increase in the dam height shall only be carried out after rehabilitation of all the oustees was completed. The applications challenged the NCA’s claims that there would be no “additional submergence’.
Pleading for the oustees, NBA counsel Sanjay Parikh informed the court that the rehabilitation of thousands of oustees was pending, while the dam height was being increased and construction has commenced, leading to grave violation of the fundamental rights of the oustees. He said that the procedure for dam height had been “grossly violated” by the Environment and Rehabilitation Sub Groups of the NCA and the NCA itself.
Parikh also questioned the legality of the ongoing dam work, as it has already been proved that the conditional clearance to raise the dam height from 110.64 to 121.92 metres has been violated and thousands of oustees, already thrown in the submergence zone, have not yet been rehabilitated and have been defrauded by a nexus of officials and agents, whose acts are being inquired into by a Judicial Commission in Madhya Pradesh.
Applicant-in-person, Medha Patkar submitted that there are already hundreds of orders of the GRAs, where compliance is pending, and oustees have already faced impacts of “unlawful submergence”. She pointed out that the NCA’s Annual Report of 2013 had already admitted more than 2,300 families are yet to get land in Madhya Pradesh. At the same time, more than 1,000 adivasi oustees in Maharashtra and a few hundred in Gujarat are without land, civic amenities.

Comments

TRENDING

Importance of Bangladesh for India amidst 'growing might' of China in South Asia

By Samara Ashrat*  The basic key factor behind the geopolitical importance of Bangladesh is its geographical location. The country shares land borders with Myanmar and India. Due to its geographical position, Bangladesh is a natural link between South Asia and Southeast Asia.  The country is also a vital geopolitical ally to India, in that it has the potential to facilitate greater integration between Northeast India and Mainland India. Not only that, due to its open access to the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh has become significant to both China and the US.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Regional political dynamics 'leading to' institutional violence in SAARC University

By Sandeep Pandey*  South Asian University is a university set up in Delhi by member countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Maldives – which is open to students from all these countries. However, as SAARC is receiving little attention these days because of regional political dynamics, it appears as if SAU has lost significance too. Because of the hiatus in peace process between India and Pakistan, the Board of Governors of this University is dysfunctional.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

'BBC film shows only tip of iceberg': Sanjiv Bhatt's daughter speaks at top US press club

By Our Representative   The United States' premier journalists' organisation, the National Press Club (NPC), has come down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for recent "attacks on journalists in India." Speaking at the screening of an episode of the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question,” banned in India, in the club premises, NPC President Eileen O’Reilly said, “Since Modi came to power we have watched with frustration and disappointment as his regime has suppressed the rights of its citizens to a free and independent news media."

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Natural farming: Hamirpur leads the way to 'huge improvement' in nutrition, livelihood

By Bharat Dogra*  Santosh is a dedicated farmer who along with his wife Chunni Devi worked very hard in recent months to convert a small patch of unproductive land into a lush green, multi-layer vegetable garden. This has ensured year-round supply of organically grown vegetables to his family as well as fetched several thousand rupees in cash sales.

Over-stressed? As Naveen Patnaik turns frail, Odisha 'moves closer' to leadership crisis

By Sudhansu R Das  Not a single leader in Odisha is visible in the horizon who can replace Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He has ruled Odisha for nearly two and half decades. His father, Biju Patnaik, had built Odisha; he was a daring pilot who saved the life of Indonesia’s Prime Minister Sjahrir and President Sukarno when the Dutch army blocked their exit.

Anti-Valentine's Day push: Sectarian move to 'restrict, constrict' India's cultural milieu

By Ram Puniyani*  Indian culture is diverse and plural. It has been enriching itself by accepting the diversity irrespective of religion or geographical boundaries. This gets reflected in all aspects of our life, be it food habits, clothes, art, architecture, social occasions, customs and religious traditions. This is the natural grain of any open and thriving society. With the rise of sectarianism the effort is to restrict and constrict our culture in particular. 

Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Ban Ki-moon, others ask Bangladesh PM to 'protect' Yunus

Counterview Desk  A campaign has been launched to support Bangladesh-based economist, micro-finance guru and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, seeking signatures from citizens across the globe in order to “protect” his work, life and safety.