THE STATES

The woes of the displaced

Thousands of families displaced by the Maan dam struggle for survival at resettlement sites while the Madhya Pradesh government claims that the process of R&R has been complete.

LYLA BAVADAM

"HOW can a development project create a disaster in the lives of the most downtrodden tribal people and also thousands of farmers of a huge area? How can it ravage their lives without any protest by mainstream political parties? My visit to the resettlement sites was a shocking experience," said Sarla Maheswari, Rajya Sabha member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), after a visit to the resettlement sites of families displaced by the Maan dam in Madhya Pradesh. She was accompanied by Subodh Roy, another Member of Parliament of the CPI(M), on the visit, which took place between August 16 and 18 and was a follow-up of the party's decision to support the Narmada Bachao Andolan's (NBA) struggle in the Narmada valley. "We did not have a very clear idea of the NBA's activities up to now," she said, "[but after the visit] we were moved by the NBA's long-standing devotion to their work, their care for the poor and the reformist character of the movement, which has been going on for the last two decades. They have brought enormous changes in the lives of the entire population of the area."

The Madhya Pradesh government has plummeted to new depths in its undemocratic approach towards those affected by the Maan dam in Dhar district. Its attitude was exemplified by the sequence of events prior to the arrival of the two MPs. In the second week of July, the government ordered the closure of the sluice gates of the dam, thereby beginning the process of impounding water. On July 20, when the men of the village were at the weekly market, a 400-strong police force swooped down on the village and forced the women to get into police vans. They were taken to the nearby town of Kesur.

Antubai, one of those arrested, told a fact-finding team of the India Centre for Human Rights that women who voiced any protest or anxiety about being separated from their children were beaten. Maheswari said that the women who spoke to her were terrified of the police. "They told me that during the action the police had torn their saris."

On August 7, in Khedi Balwari village, 21 houses were submerged following the government's decision to go ahead with the initial plan of closing the sluice gates in July even though Relief and Rehabilitation (R&R) work was incomplete. About 65 families in the lower reaches of the village have lost their homes, fields and crops as the waters have risen to about 40 metres behind the dam wall. With their homes under water and with no alternative accommodation, the residents took shelter on a hillock. After visiting the site, Maheswari said: "Some lived in tin sheds. Some lived in the open. It was raining when we were there and their condition was terrible. The arrangements made for them were very poor."

The government went ahead with its submergence plans despite the fact that the villagers and the NBA had protested outside the district administration's offices in Indore and had succeeded in getting the State's Grievance Redressal Authority (GRA) Chairman, Ravindra Sharma, to pass an order allowing the displaced persons to return to Khedi Balwari. The GRA also indicated that the State must assist them in this move. While this order was a welcome one, there was no doubt that it was a temporary reprieve since it also stated that the affected people could remain in the village until there was a threat of submergence.

Condemning the government's actions, Sharma wrote: "This action [of enforced eviction] especially when it is clear that the proper implementation of the process laid down in the rehabilitation policy is yet to ensue, and that it is under consideration by the GRA, is a violation of the law and the constitutional arrangements that protect the interests of the Adivasis. The level of water in the reservoir should not be allowed to rise to an extent that any habitation be submerged during the monsoon."

The absence of a master plan for submergence and R&R is at the root of the problems in the valley. It is now 21 years since the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal had stated that a master plan should be in place; the Supreme Court too had reiterated the necessity for one. The Central government's laxity is reflected in the plight of those displaced by the Maan dam. The issues of R&R in this relatively small project have snowballed since last year when the dam neared its final height of 53 metres. Under the law all R&R must be completed six months prior to submergence. Since the Maan submergence was planned for the 2002 monsoon season, R&R should have been completed in December 2001. The affected villagers and the NBA said this was not the case. The government claims that R&R had been completed by the required date.

In 1987, the government of Madhya Pradesh brought out a State rehabilitation policy for those forced to leave their villages by the Narmada valley projects. The policy stated that a land-for-land scheme was mandatory, among other awards, cash compensation being permissible only in exceptional cases.

In such cases the recipients would have to make written applications to the Land Acquisition officer. According to the policy, applications of Adivasis from the Scheduled Tribes would have to be scrutinised on a case-by-case basis by the District Collector. This point has been the bone of contention for those involved in the current imbroglio at the Maan site. Over 90 per cent of Dhar district is inhabited by Adivasis who belong to various Scheduled Tribes.

The government claims that R&R is complete because all the people in question have received either land or cash as they chose. The dislocated people say that they were forced to accept cash. The District Collector asserts that he has written proof for what he says. The NBA contends that the administration took advantage of a largely illiterate population.

Many questions arise from the government's actions. First, it is inexplicable as to why the government would want to fill the dam. A canal network, which is a supplementary requirement for a full dam, is not yet complete. So what exactly does the government hope to gain by storing water if the distribution network is yet to be built? The NBA believes that the government's decisions were undertaken only to intimidate the residents of other villages affected by the project.

A second question relates to the reason why hundreds of families in villages slated to be submerged by the Maan Project, such as Bhuwada, Khanpura, Rehtiaon, Gadhaghat and Golpura still live in these places. There are no signs of evacuation in these areas. Maheshwari asks if the evacuation and subsequent flooding of Khedi Balwari was meant to set an example to these people.

Thirdly, as in the case of every other project in the Narmada valley, people affected by the Maan dam have been agitating for proper R&R for the last five years. The families that need to be resettled total about 1,200, a number that is so small and manageable that it has prompted an activist to say that the government could easily have made the R&R at Maan a prototype for larger R&R projects. Instead of that, the government has chosen to act in a heavy-handed manner. The most notable incident took place in May this year when, in the heat of the central Indian summer, the State cut all electrical connections, sealed drinking water sources, uprooted hand pumps, and bulldozed the local school in Khedi Balwari. The ensuing 35-day dharna and 29-day hunger strike by the affected residents and the NBA forced the government to involve the GRA. The GRA was still in the process of completing the inquiry and presenting its recommendations regarding R&R to State government when Khedi Balwari was submerged. The ineffectiveness of the GRA in protecting the residents of Khedi Balwari has led Maheswari to call the GRA "a hoax and time-passing machinery". Maheswari says that the CPI(M) plans to bring up the issues of R&R in Parliament and also raise the matter with the Prime Minister. She says the party is rethinking the validity of current modes of development, and her visit to the Narmada valley has convinced her that this is an issue that has to be taken up by the party.