By A Representative
Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar has rejected Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath's plea that she should end her hunger strike, which has entered the fifth day. On satyagraha along with her NBA supporters at Chhota Badda in Barwani district against "illegal drowning" of Narmada dam oustees, 10 more activists joined her hunger strike on Thursday.
The ten persons who joined Patkar belong to the affected villages of Bhavati, Bijasan, Ganpur, Chhota Badda, Rajghat and Gangli. A statement issued by NBA said, the Centre and the Government of Gujarat remain insensitive to the point of thousands of families in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, who are forced to face drowning without policy-driven rehabilitation.
It added, the Narmada Control Authority (NCA), a central government agency, is deliberately trying to drown the peasant-tribals, cattle herders, potters, and landless laborers without rehabilitation by increasing the dam's water level, claiming, at present, rehabilitation of 32,000 affected people is pending.
The statement said, although the Kamal Nath government of Madhya Pradesh has started a process of dialogue with NBA, the Gujarat government and the NCA – who ordered to raise the water level of the dam – have not responded to the "clear mass-killing effort being done in this planned manner."
It accused Madhya Pradesh authorities of continuing to spread lies about rescue operation. SDM of Kukshi, for instance, has claimed to saved more people than the total number of affected. The authorities are forcibly evacuating the affected from the villages in the name of rescue operations, it added.
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