The Hindu : Medha Patkar ends fast

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 29, 2004

National

National

Medha Patkar ends fast

By Kalpana Sharma

The Narmada Bachao Andolan leader, Medha Patkar, ends her six-day fast, by accepting a glass of tender coconut water from the Maharashtra Minister for Rehabilitation, Vilasrao Patil, in Mumbai on Wednesday. — Photo: Vivek Bendre

MUMBAI, JAN. 28. Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan ended her six-day fast today after the Maharashtra Government decided that it would not give its consent to raising the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada to 110.64 metres until all families in Maharashtra affected by this were resettled.

In a letter to Ms. Patkar, handed over to her personally by the State Home Minister, R.R. Patil, the Government confirmed that it would not submit its Action Taken Report (ATR) on rehabilitation at the crucial meeting of the Review Committee of the Narmada Control Authority in New Delhi tomorrow. Unless the NCA is satisfied that all those affected by an increase in the height of the dam have been resettled, clearance for further construction cannot be given.

Ms. Patkar and three others from the NBA have been on dharna from January 21 and thereafter on a fast demanding a written assurance from the State Government that the families that will lose their lands if the height of the dam is further increased are first resettled. Despite the Chief Minister, Sushilkumar Shinde's verbal assurance at the World Social Forum, that the Government was committed to resettling those affected in Maharashtra first before agreeing to further construction on the dam, no such assurance was given in writing to the NBA.

The State Government has declared that it will complete the process of scrutinising all claims by project-affected families by March 30, 2004 and that within four months it will have completed the resettlement and rehabilitation. However, while announcing the end of her fast, Ms. Patkar pointed out that the deadline was an unrealistic one given the complexity of the problem.

She also urged the State Government to make a more realistic assessment of how much it would benefit from the electricity generated when the height of the dam is raised.

The NCA would wait to see what emerged from tomorrow's RCNCA meeting and announce the next course of action on February 1, she said.

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