[WSMDiscuss] Fwd: PRESS RELEASE: 17 June 2017: Chief Minister of Gujarat announces the closure of Sardar Sarovar Dam gates | False and unprecedented decision by NCA | People of the Valley are determined to fight against the evil forces which are anti-farmers, anti-development, anti-land itself

Sat Jun 17 22:15:00 CEST 2017

Saturday, June 17, 2017

India in movement….

[This post, that I am forwarding from a list that is perhaps largely to people within India, perhaps needs some unpacking for readers elsewhere.  As many on this list know, the NBA – the Narmada Bachao Andolan ( ‘Save the Narmada Movement’) – has been spearheading a movement to resist the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, one of several dams across the Narmada river, since the mid-late 1980s; and during the late 1980s and 90s, with the support of an international campaign orchestrated by a ‘Narmada Action Committee’.  I suspect / have to assume that it is only an oversight that this Press Release by the NAPM (National Alliance of People’s Movements) does not mention the NBA.    

[Despite major successes during the 1990s – the withdrawal of the World Bank from supporting the project, the withdrawal of Japanese aid, the radical revising of World Bank and consequently also other IFI policies in relation to big dams and to resettlement and rehabilitation of those affected by big dams, and so on -, the governments in question (the government of the state of Gujarat, of India, and others) as well as statutory authorities empowered to build the dam have succeeded in relentlessly pushing the project ahead over the past two decades, step by step – and with that, in relentless displacing tens and all told, hundreds of thousands of people, both Adivasis and farmers. 

[In the face of this juggernaut, the NBA has been forced to change its position from outright opposition to the dam to reluctantly accepting it but attempting, by using the courts as well as statutory authorities – as well as by appealing to reason in the public sphere -, to work for adequate resettlement and rehabilitation for those being displaced and to restrict the final height of the dam (and therefore the displacement and environmental destruction).

The news here, of the clearance by the government to raise the dam to its full height, is the final step that the NBA has been resisting; the fact that the government has used deceit and sleight of hand (“alternative facts”, anyone ? which is not restricted to Trumpland, by any means) to achieve what it wants is an old, old story.  But whichever way you cut it, this therefore marks a historic day in the long thirty-plus year history of the struggles against the Sardar Sarovar Dam and against all the Narmada dams, in general :

PRESS RELEASE, 17 June 2017:

Chief Minister of Gujarat announces the closure of Sardar Sarovar Dam gates

False and unprecedented decision by Narmada Control Authority

People of the Valley are determined to fight against evil forces which are anti-farmers, anti-development, anti-land

National Alliance of People’s Movements

            In solidarity –

            JS

fwd

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: napm india <napmindia at gmail.com>
> Subject: PRESS RELEASE: 17 June 2017: CM, Gujarat announces the closure of Sardar Sarovar Dam gates | False and unprecedented decision by NCA | People of the Valley are determined to fight against the evil forces which are anti-farmers, anti-development, anti-land itself
> Date: June 17, 2017 at 10:35:26 AM EDT
> To: undisclosed-recipients:;
> Reply-To: NAPM-India+owners at googlegroups.com

CM, Gujarat announces the closure of Sardar Sarovar Dam gates

False and unprecedented decision by Narmada Control Authority

People of the Valley are determined to fight against the evil forces which are anti-farmers, anti-development, anti-land itself

Press release: 17 June 2017

The shocking statement by the chief minister of Gujarat has sent waves across the Narmada Valley. The level of falsehood involved in the decision taken by NCA on the closure of Sardar Sarovar gates is unprecedented. It is as per news, the decision taken by all the states concerned that since the Resettlement and Rehabilitation of the Project Affected Families is over, especially in Madhya Pradesh, which is the state having completed R&R task at the earliest, the gates can be closed and water can be filled up to 138.68 meters.

All the documents including the official reports and affidavits before the Supreme Court, the thousands of orders by the Grievance Redressal Authorities in MP and Maharashtra as well as Gujarat which are not complied with, the violations of the legal regimes with NWDTA, state level R&R policies and the SC judgements are the clear indication of the fact that thousands in MP and hundreds in Maharashtra and Gujarat are far from resettled, why talk of rehabilitation.

At least 40000 families and 2.5 lakh people reside in the 192 villages of MP and 1 township who are declared as “project affected”. They are to be forcibly removed, if they do not move out with whatever they have received as R&R benefits, even though incomplete and partial, as per the public announcements by CM of MP and higher officials since last few months. There are continuous protests going on in each of the affected districts and villages in Badwani, Dhar, and Khargone. It’s obvious and clear from the recent writ petition filed before the Indore High Court that even the latest order of the SC if not complied with, neither are the R&R sites ready with all civic amenities mandatory under the law for which tenders are being issued and work has not even commenced at any sites. The disbursement of the new package in lieu of land, directed by the SC is far from complete. A few thousand applications by the eligible beneficiaries are pending before the GRA, MP. Hundreds are pending before the GRA, Maharashtra, and GRA, Gujarat too. 

In such a situation to create a watery grave and drown the houses, farms, schools, shops, temples and mosques etc would be inhumane and barbaric, criminal in the eyes of law.

To agree with the decision of Gujarat government rather the PM and not to represent the case of the PAFs from MP is an act indicating the shameless political surrender before Modi Government and Gujarat, for whom they are not just sacrificing their lives, livelihoods of the affected but rich tree cover, heritage and river, the mother herself. This is more of a contradiction after so much euphoria created through Narmada SewaYatra. 

The valley is not just shocked but infuriated, the PAFs are to burn the effigy of the government that is for them dead and non-existent. People of the Valley are determined to fight against the evil forces which are anti-farmers, anti-development, anti-land itself!  <>

Madhuresh, Himshi, Ankita
9867348307
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===============================================
National Alliance of People’s Movements
National Office : 6/6, Jangpura B, Mathura Road, New Delhi 110014
Phone : 011 24374535 Mobile : 09818905316
Web : www.napm-india.org <http://www.napm-india.org/> | napmindia at gmail.com <mailto:napmindia at gmail.com>
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Twitter : @napmindia

______________________________

Jai Sen

jai.sen at cacim.net <mailto:jai.sen at cacim.net>
www.cacim.net <http://www.cacim.net/> / http://www.openword.net.in

Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded Algonquin territory (+1-613-282 2900) 

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Jai Sen, ed, 2013 – The Movements of Movements : Struggles for Other Worlds, Part I. Prefinal version of Volume 4 Part I in the Challenging Empires series. New Delhi : OpenWord.  Prefinal version 1.0 available @ http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/the_movements_of_movements/ <http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/the_movements_of_movements/>
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Jai Sen, ed, 2017a – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?.  Volume 4 in the Challenging Empires series (New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press).  Available for pre-order at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/>
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