Oustees not yet resettled properly

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI, AUG. 4. A committee set up by the Maharashtra Government on the directions of the Supreme Court to assess the progress of the resettlement of the people displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) on the Narmada river has strongly recommended that the height of the dam be not raised any further since people displaced at the present height of 90 metres are yet to be offered any proper rehabilitation options. It noted the State's inability to do so on account of incorrect surveys, absence of a master-plan and the non-availability of land.

In a strong indictment of the Maharashtra Government after visiting the sites and speaking to the affected tribals, the five-member committee chaired by a retired judge, Mr S.M. Daud, observed that ``there were contradictions on the ground reality and the figures furnished by the State Government''. It asked the State to correct its data and notify the correct position to the Narmada Control Authority which had taken vital decisions (with regard to raising 3-metre-high humps on the dam) based on the States' versions.

Delivering its judgment in October last year on a petition filed by the Narmada Bachao Andolan for reviewing the cost and benefits of the Sardar Sarovar Project in Gujarat, the Supreme Court had directed the riparian States of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to set up committees for assessing the ground realities of rehabilitation of the affected tribals in the valley. The Daud Committee was set up by the Maharashtra State.

Raising dam height

``The Government should not use incorrect information merely because a stamp of finality has been conferred upon it at the Mantrayal level. It has the responsibility to see that it does not accept any proposal to raise the height of the dam beyond the existing height of 90 meters unless the obligations laid down by the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal and the Supreme Court are fulfilled as a whole in regard to those affected at 90 metres and are yet to be resettled,'' the committee said.

In its report submitted to the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, last month, the committee recommended that a fresh survey of the people threatened out of their homes and livelihoods be conducted in all the affected villages. Several thousand affected had been left out of Government consideration, the panel said in its report submitted to the State last month.

Of the 245 villages that will be submerged on account of the mega project in Gujarat, 33 fall in Maharashtra and a majority in Madhya Pradesh. There are more than 5000 tribal families in the Maharashtra villages, some of who have not been taken into account at all.

The committee recommended that the assistance of NGOs such as the Narmada Bachao Andolan (led by Medha Patkar) who have the confidence of the people be solicited and welcomed in ensuring proper rehabilitation and resettlement of all people who face displacement and threat to their livelihoods.

It said that `gramsabhas' be involved in collecting the factual information within a reasonable period of time of the tribals who will be displaced by the mega project. ``Tribals lack the skills to communicate with the officialdom, which also has the tendency to ignore their grievances,'' it observed in a 15- page report.

The 33 villages to be submerged are from two taluks of Nandurbar district. The tribals of these villages are in occupation and settlement of that region from times immemorial. Except of one family of the priests at Shoolpaneshwar temple in Manibeli, the entire affected population comprises tribals who are not merely dependent on supplemental income from forest and river produce but partly also on animal breading and poultry, the committee observed.

Quoting from `adivasi' life, the committee said that tribals had been living on their land for generations. They had formed these villages, named them, had their gods and goddesses, took good care of the region and never came for any outside help and were living a peaceful, self-sufficient and contented life. ``Now you come and take away from us all this and are leaving us without any livelihood and support. These forests, the river and our lands have been part of our lives for centuries and you come and call us encroachers on our own land,'' the committee quotes tribals as saying.

The tribals in Maharashtra talked to the committee of the unavailability of land to resettle them, of no legal rights over land claimed to be allotted to some, about uncultivable the land, police atrocities, corruption, ex-parte notices, underestimation of project-affected people and so on. The tribals resettled in Gujarat talked of no jobs, no lands, no land rights, no irrigation, dispersal of communities, and that they were better off in their original villages.

The constitution in its very preamble speaks of several values but places first that of justice in social, economic and political context, and the tribals who will lose their all, should get just that, the committee said.

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