Andhra Pradesh   

Medha Patkar, tribals protest against Polavaram project

Special Correspondent

Tribals' rally turns violent in Khammam, mandal office ransacked

HYDERABAD: A day after the Andhra Pradesh Government secured the much-awaited environmental clearance for the Polavaram (Indirasagar) project, noted environmental activist Medha Patkar and the tribals facing displacement strongly opposed the Government's moves to go ahead with the project.

A rally by the tribal families turned violent at Chintoor in Bhadrachalam division as the protesters, led by Adivasi Samkshema Parishad, went berserk and ransacked the Mandal Revenue Office (MRO). They were angered over the refusal of the officials concerned to receive their memorandum. They damaged furniture and threw out the files in the MRO office.

Elsewhere, Ms. Patkar visited a koya habitation in Polavaram mandal of West Godavari district to express solidarity with the tribals. She termed Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's statement on the clearances for the project as "misleading."

No forest clearance

"What the project has secured from the Centre is only environmental clearance. But there is no forest clearance yet which is mandatory for any major dam," Ms. Patkar said at an interface with the adivasis.

Asserting that the project was part of efforts to boost industrialisation at the expense of agriculture and tribal areas, she volunteered to spearhead the agitations to be launched by tribals against giving clearances to the Indirasagar project in violation of the people's right to life and the right to livelihood guaranteed by the Constitution.

The Adivasi Samkshema Parishad expressed concern that the existence of some of the primitive tribal groups would be put at stake by the construction of the Polavaram project. No package from the Government could ensure the total rehabilitation of the displaced tribes.

The Government could, instead, make changes in the project design to ensure that the tribal habitations were spared from submergence.

Support extended

Major political parties such as the TDP and the BJP extended their support to the Government in going ahead with the project and completing its construction before the stipulated deadline. The BJP wanted the Government not to consider the opposition raised by "environmental fundamentalists" such as Ms. Medha Patkar and commence work at the earliest.

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