Apprehensions fly high: 5,000 Narmada dam oustees to be forcibly evicted after July 31 by Madhya Pradesh govt

Is the Madhya Pradesh government preparing to forcibly evict about 5,000 project affected families (PAFs) of the Narmada dam after July 31, the date said to have been fixed up the Supreme Court (SC) to "resettle" all the dam oustees by paying them a "hefty" cash compensation?
While Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar says it “cannot do it”, the view has picked up among knowledgeable circles that this may well happen if the authorities follow the latest SC order.
Patkar told Counterview from Maharashtra’s Manibeli village, situated on the banks of Narmada upstream of the dam, “We don’t have the certified copy of the SC order yet, hence we can’t comment. But clearly, the very fact that the SC asked for paying Rs 60 lakh to each of the 581 PAFs a whopping Rs 60 lakh compensation is a victory.”
Referring to the SC ruling given by of the bench consisting of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justices NV Ramana and DY Chandrachud, she insisted, “Such compensation has never been paid before to any dam oustees.”
Apart from Rs 60 lakh to these PAFs, who had refused to accept land against cash compensation of Rs 5.58 lakh for two acres of land, another 4,216 PAFs are to be paid Rs 15 lakh each to those who were forced to buy up whatever land was offered from the Rs 5.58 lakh compensation.
However, fear has gone strong among the supporters of Narmada oustees that the Madhya Pradesh government would take advantage of the SC judgment and “forcibly remove” all PAFs – 581 plus 4,216 – to ensure that the Gujarat government closes its chapter of completing the Narmada dam. Both Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat are BJP ruled.
While technically the dam is complete, built up to the full reservoir level (FRL) – 138.64 metres – the Gujarat government cannot fill it up beyond 121.92 metres till all the oustees’ resettlement is complete.
In fact, Gujarat awaits Government of India agency Narmada Control Authority (NCA) nod -- that all the Narmada dam oustees have been resettling in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, so that it could close the 31 gates and take the waters up to FRL, necessary for taking irrigation waters to far away Kutch and Saurashtra regions.
Nandini Oza, formerly a senior NBA activist and currently an independent researcher on developmental issues, has quoted media reports to say that “judges asked the 4,897 families to vacate their land by July 31 this year, failing which the authorities will be free to "forcibly remove them".
Oza says, “It is very painful, as it not only violates the rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) principles laid down by the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal (NWDT) but also denies the Narmada oustees' rights to justice and dignity.”
In a Facebook post, she insists, “The NWDT has clearly stated that PAFs must have land-for-land as rehabilitation and not cash compensation. Further, it states that irrigable lands must be made available to the oustees and they have to be rehabilitated one year in advance of submergence. It also has laid down the principle of community resettlement and so on.”
Oza insists, “Any amount of cash as compensation therefore violates miserably and fundamentally the rehabilitation rules laid down by NWDT in case of the Narmada dam oustees.”
Meanwhile, a media report says, “The top court used extraordinary powers vested under the Constitution's Article 142 to bring the curtains down on the 38-year-old legal battle. The provision empowers the court to pass any order, decree or judgment for "complete justice" to litigants.”
While the Centre and the Madhya Pradesh government have been asked to pay 681 families Rs 60 lakh each and 4,216 others Rs 15 lakh each within two months, the report says, “The judges asked the 4,897 families to vacate their land by July 31 this year, failing which the authorities will be free to ‘forcibly remove them’.
An keen observer says, “The court said that the payments are in keeping with the Land Acquisition (Resettlement and Rehabilitation) Act, 2013, which entitles the landholder to four times the market value as compensation. The families concerned are supposed to get their due amount by July this year and vacate the place.”
“The order, however, goes against the promise of the Narmada Nigam to provide land for land. Cash compensation is a step backward. It now turns out that Gujarat, the beneficiary State, has been unable to provide land for the oustees, most of whom are from Madhya Pradesh.”

Comments

Morari Bapu echoes misleading figures to support the BJP's anti-conversion agenda

A senior Gujarat activist phoned me today to inform me that the well-known storyteller on Lord Ram, Morari Bapu, has made an "unsubstantiated" and "preposterous" statement in Songadh town, located in the tribal-dominated Tapi district. He claimed that while the Gujarat government wants the Bhagavad Gita to be taught in schools, the "problem is" that 75% of government teachers "are Christians who do not let this happen" and are “involved in religious conversions.”

Patriot, Link: How Soviet imbroglio post-1968 crucially influenced alternative media platforms

Adatata Narayanan, Aruna Asaf Ali Alternative media, as we know it today in the age of information and communication technology (ICT), didn't exist in the form it does today during or around the time I joined formal journalism at Link Newsweekly as a sub-editor in January 1979. However, Link, and its sister publication Patriot, a daily—both published from Delhi—were known to have provided what could be called an alternative media platform at a time when major Delhi-based dailies were controlled by media barons.

60 crore in Mahakumbh? It's all hype with an eye on UP polls, asserts keen BJP supporter in Amit Shah's constituency

As the Mahakumbh drew to a close, during my daily walk, I met a veteran BJP supporter—a neighbor with whom we would often share dinner in a group. An amicable person, the first thing he asked me, as he was about to take the lift to his flat, was, "How many people do you think must have participated in the holy dip?" He then stopped by to talk—which we did for a full half-hour, cutting into my walk time.

Breaking news? Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

An untold story? Still elusive: Gujarati language studies on social history of Gujarat's caste and class evolution

This is a follow-up to my earlier blog , where I mentioned that veteran scholar Prof. Ghanshyam Shah has just completed a book for publication on a topic no academic seems to have dealt with—caste and class relations in Gujarat’s social history. He forwarded me a chapter of the book, published as an "Economic & Political Weekly" article last year, which deals with the 2015 Patidar agitation in the context of how this now-powerful caste originated in the Middle Ages and how it has evolved in the post-independence era.

Justifying social divisions? 'Dogs too have caste system like we humans, it's natural'

I have never had any pets, nor am I very comfortable with them. Frankly, I don't know how to play with a pet dog. I just sit quietly whenever I visit someone and see their pet dog trying to lick my feet. While I am told not to worry, I still choose to be a little careful, avoiding touching the pet.

Caste, class, and Patidar agitation: Veteran academic 'unearths' Gujarat’s social history

Recently, I was talking with a veteran Gujarat-based academic who is the author of several books, including "Social Movements in India: A Review of Literature", "Untouchability in Rural India", "Public Health and Urban Development: The Study of Surat Plague", and "Dalit Identity and Politics", apart from many erudite articles and papers in research and popular journals.

New York-based digital company traces Modi's meteoric rise to global Hindutva ecosystem over several decades

A recent document, released by the Polis Project Inc.—a New York-based digital magazine and hybrid research and journalism organization—even as seeking to highlight the alleged rise of authoritarianism in India, has sought to trace Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meteoric rise since 2014 to the ever-expanding global Hindutva ecosystem over the last several decades.

Behind the scene? Ex-IAS, now Modi man in Yogi Cabinet, who lined up Mahakumbh VVIP comforts for Gujarat colleagues

The other day, I was talking to a senior IAS official about whether he or his colleagues had traveled to the recently concluded Mahakumbh in Allahabad, which was renamed Prayagraj by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as part of his intense Hindutva drive. He refused to reveal any names but said he had not gone there "despite arrangements for Gujarat cadre IAS officials" at the Mahakumbh VVIP site. "The water is too dirty—why take the risk?" he asked.

Search This Blog