Skip to main content

Nisarpur village off Narmada river on warpath: Gram sabha passes resolution against "forcible" eviction

By Our Representative
About 100 kilometres from the Gujarat border, not very far from the Narmada river in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh, Nisarpur village is on the warpath. With forcible eviction looming large over the village and government sending police officials to warn people, here, thousands of women and men are on the street every day.
Three days back, it was total strike with all shops and activities closed. On Wednesday, the villagers took out a torchlight procession. On Thursday, again, there was a rally and mass meeting, followed by a special gram sabha to pass a resolute against evicting them by closing down the Narmada dam’s 30-odd gates.
Determined to challenge eviction, the big village, where about 3,000 families live, is almost a township. With all the social and public services, shops and markets, it is, however, dependent on agriculture. Traders to artisans, all gain their livelihood, thanks to the village’s agricultural prosperity.
Farmers of the village grow wheat, maize, banana, papaya, cotton, among other crops. The prime agricultural land attached with the village and all the houses of Nisarpur were recorded as affected by the Narmada Dam at levels below 110 meters.
A Nisarpur temple to face
submergence
Lands were officially declared acquired in the year 2000, but most of the farmers, potters, fish workers, laborers, and artisans yet to be rehabilitated. Majority of villagers complain extremely poor compensation for houses they have been asked to leave. The compensation is far from sufficient to build new houses at resettlement sites the project affected families (PAFs) have been offered.
The land the PAFs at the resettlement site has being offered has been acquired from 50-odd landholders. On this site, the project affected families (PAFs) if from four other villages -- Kothada, Karandia, Raswa, and Rakti – would be resettled. Ironically, 30 of these 50 landlords today are landless!
Nisarpur is just three km away from Narmada river and the well-known Koteshwar temple complex. Within this single village there are some 30 temples and 10 mosques.
Approximately 60% of Nisarpur’s population is poor, yet they have not received alternative livelihood, which ranges from fishing to making bricks at brick kilns. Many of them have not been allocated housing plots and have been cheated by middlemen, who grabbed the documents, especially of widows, and duped them.
Only recently, when complaints were written by activists, one middleman returned a widow’s documents along with Rs 15,000. However, all are not so lucky.
This is not just the case with Nisarpur but also of large number of other villages in the three districts in bordering Narmada. Government officials are visiting each of the villages, telling people to vacate the villages. In order to make their mission successful, they are paying visits to communities as never before. While police and the lower revenue officials are ready for a dialogue, this not the case with higher officials attached with the Narmada project.
Meanwhile, villagers suspect, the recent inter-state meeting of the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) in Delhi on May 17, 2017, would ensure that they are forced out of their village within the next two months, They strongly feel that all this is in violation of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) and Supreme Court orders.

Comments

TRENDING

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Central pollution watchdog sees red in Union ministry labelling waste to energy green

By Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran*  “Destructors”, “incinerators” and “waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration” all mean the same thing – indiscriminate burning of garbage! Having a history of about one and a half centuries, WTE incinerators have seen several reboots over the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. 

First-of-its-kind? 'Eco-friendly, low cost' sewage treatment system installed in Gujarat

Counterview Desk Following the installation of the Unconventional Decentralized Multi-Stage Reactor (UDMSR) for sewage treatment, a note on what is claimed to be the  first-of-its-kind technology said, the treated sewage from this system “can be directly utilized for agricultural purposes”, even as proving to be a “saviour in the times of water crisis.”

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. 

Indo-Bangla border: Farmers facing 'illegal obstacles' in harvesting, transporting yields

  Counterview Desk  In a representation to the chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, human rights defender Kirity Roy, who is secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), has said that Border Security Force (BSF) personnel are creating "illegal obstacles" for farmers seeking to harvest their ripened yields and transport them to the market in village Jhaukuthi of Cooch Behar district.

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

Wasteland, a colonial legacy, being used to 'give away' vast tracts to Ratnagiri refinery

By Fouziya Tehzeeb* William D’Souza, a 55-year old farmer from Kuthethur, Mangalore, was busy mixing cattle feed when we arrived at his doorsteps. Around 25 km from the bustling city of Mangalore, Kuthethur is a lush green village with thick vegetation. On the way to William’s house the idyllic view gets blocked by the flares and smoke arising from the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL).

CAA disregards India's inclusive plural ethos, 'betrays' ideals of freedom struggle: PUCL

Counterview Desk    "Outraged" at the move of the Central government to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA 2019) weeks before the election, the top rights group, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has demanded that the law be repealed. 

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".

Invincible, Modi 'taller' than BJP, RSS: An opportunity for Congress beyond 2024?

By NS Venkataraman*  With the announcement of poll schedule for the 2024 parliamentary election, there is palpable excitement and expectation amongst the countrymen  about the shape of things to happen in India after the  results of the election would be announced. There is also speculation abroad about the future course of developments in India.