National

Land allotment violates Tribunal award: NBA

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, FEB. 23. The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader, Medha Patkar, told presspersons here on Friday, that the ex-parte allotment of land to the project-affected families (PAFs) in Alirajpur and Badwani in western Madhya Pradesh is in violation of the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal Award.

She said the agreement with the World Bank also required that the land offered should be allotted only with the consent of the PAFs. It would be wrong to justify the ex-parte land allotment on the plea that this decision was taken since the PAFs had not responded to the offers. This premise can be proved false through a survey at the ground level.

Ms. Patkar said that the issue is being raised by the NBA at the level of the Chairman of the Grievance Redressal Authority, appointed by the State Government for the relief and rehabilitation of those being affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project.

She questioned the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh's attempts to do away with the provision of land for land in gross violation of the Narmada Tribunal Award. She accused him of conspiring with the Gujarat Chief Minister, after a meeting with the Prime Minister on January 24, to pave the way for the construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam in Gujarat upto a height of 100 metres by bulldozing the rights of the PAFs.

A similar decision had also been recorded in the minutes of a Narmada Control Authority meeting held in New Delhi on November 20, 2001, she said. The decision to raise the height of the dam beyond 90 metres is contrary to the directions of Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal Award (NWDTA) and the Supreme Court.

It is illegal to increase the height without complete resettlement and rehabilitation of PAFs six months in advance. Moreover, she said, construction beyond 90 metres can take place only after taking clearance from the relief and rehabilitation (R&R) and environment sub-groups.

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