Date:25/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/25/stories/2008082554180400.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Anti-Polavaram agitation intensifies

D. Chandra Bhaskar Rao

Adivasi Rakshana Samiti plans to take the issue to State capital

Campaign held in all tribal villages facing the risk of submergence
Samiti exhorts tribal communities to “stand up for themselves”

KOIDA (Khammam district): Tribal youths began moving door to door holding aloft flags of the Adivasi Rakshana Samiti (ARS) bringing alive once again the agitation against Polavaram project. The forest villages perched on the banks of Godavari are echoing with their slogans.

They summed up their message in a two-liner: “Polavarani Punadiro.. Giriputrulaku Samadiro…”

( Polavaram would spell the doom for the tribes). Singing their way from village to village, they are calling upon the tribal communities to “stand up for themselves”. And it is now or never.

The ARS completed its first round of campaign in all the tribal villages that have been facing the risk of submergence. It organised cycle rallies and hunger strike. But it could make hardly any impact with its localised activity in taking on the government on the issue of displacement.

Intensified agitation

The ARS leadership has now resolved to intensify the agitation on its own and take the campaign to the State capital. It is difficult to imagine the pain and emotion involved in leaving the home, but there is none who could understand the poor tribal communities and their agony, says Keesari Bajaru, the ARS president.

He had been averse to the involvement of the political parties saying that at one time they were in the forefront of the fight against Polavaram. But for reasons best known to them, they have fallen silent. Some parties are demanding hike in compensation and a better rehabilitation package. But the ARS is not for compensation at all . “Leave us alone and leave us to live here in the forests,” he added. The ARS leadership is sceptical of the silence of the media as well. Such a major issue of displacement could not get sufficient media attention, resented Mr. Bajaru. The ARS efforts to rope in social activists like Medha Patkar too could not make much headway.

“Hence we decided to highlight the problem ourselves. We are keen on initiating the debate once again on the displacement caused by Polavaram and fighting over the issue in a non-violent manner,” he said.