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

Narmada dam/reseroir: Waiting to be filled up

By A Representative
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 follows 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

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

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.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

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

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah 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".

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

India’s green energy push faces talent crunch amidst record growth at 16% CAGR

By Jag Jivan* A new study by a top consulting firm has found that India’s cleantech sector is entering a decisive growth phase, with strong policy backing, record capacity additions and surging investor interest, but facing mounting pressure on talent supply and rising compensation costs .

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Beyond sattvik: Purity, caste and the politics of the Indian kitchen

By Rajiv Shah A few week ago, I was forwarded an article that appeared in the British weekly The Economist . Titled “Caste and cuisine: From honeycomb curry to blood fry: India’s ‘untouchable’ cooking”, it took me back to what I had blogged about what was called a “ sattvik food festival”, an annual event organised by former Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad professor Anil Gupta.

Search This Blog