From budaraju@cae.wisc.edu Tue Jul  5 01:12:52 EDT 1994
Article: 453 of alt.india.progressive
From: budaraju@cae.wisc.edu
Newsgroups: alt.india.progressive
Subject: Medha Arrested (fwd)
Date: 2 Jul 1994 16:42:30 GMT
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Date: 1 Jul 1994 13:01:07 -0500

06/30 0903  Protesters arrested as water begins to fill ...

NEW DELHI (JUNE 30) DPA - Police in the western Indian state of Maharashtra
arrested Thursday several activists as they staged a suicide watch
protesting against being forcibly evacuated as rising waters began to fill
the controversial Sardar Sarovar dam, reports said. 
   Among those arrested and taken to an undisclosed place was Medha Patkar,
leader of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), or Save Narmada Movement. 
   At the heart of the collossal Sardar Sarovar dam lies the Narmada river
valley scheme. The monsoon rains burst over the Narmada two weeks ago and
the reservoir, already much fuller since the sluice gates were closed in
January, is rising fast. 
   The NBA charges that its activists were being arrested alongside tribal
leaders opposed to the dam. Villagers who refused to leave their homes were
being forcibly evicted and moved to tin huts on nearby hills above the
flood waters. 
   The Press Trust of India news agency reported that Patkar was arrested
at Manibeli, a partly submerged village. 
   The Calcutta-based Telegraph newspaper said Patkar and other activists
were staying in a hut of a local tribal which is likely to be submerged
this monsoon season as it is the lowest point in the village. 
   Half the hut housing the camp headquarters of the Andolan has already
been submerged, but the activists are undettered, the report said. 
   Already eight houses of the tribals in Manibeli have been swept away by
flood waters since June 16 following heavy rain in the catchment area of
the river, the Telegraph said. 
   "The submergence of houses and land of the people of the Narmada valley
is nothing but jal hatya (murder by drowning)," the report quoted Patkar as
saying. 
   The people of Manibeli who had refused to be shifted or relocated last
year had refused the offer this year too despite police repression, she
said. 
   Many tribals, as indigenous people in India are called, along with
Patkar and many activists had threatened suicide last August by drowning
rather than leave their ancestral lands. 
   The plan was called off after the federal government announced the
formation of an independent review committee to look into all aspects of
the controversial project. 
   New Delhi agreed in June 1993 to review the 1.8 billion dollar project,
one of the most controversial river barrage projects ever undertaken in the
world, involving the resettlement of 100,000 people from over 250 submerged
villagers.
   The dam is to provide irrigation water and power to the states of
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. 
   Delhi cancelled early last year 170 million dollars in loans still
pending to help fund the project on the eve of the World Bank-imposed
deadline to answer some of the ecological and resettlement concerns. The
Bank had already provided 280 million dollars over the years for the
project. 
   The project envisages construction of 30 large dams and 70 smaller ones
on the Narmada River plus 70,000 kilometres of irrigation canals. 
   Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao refused an NBA plea earlier
this year to order at least a temporary halt to construction of the dam and
closure of the sluice gates. 
   Maharashtra and Gujarat states are one of the many states that are to
elect new legislatures either late this year or in early 1994. dpa