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DAM-L LS: Oustees Sore About Maharashtra GRA Visit (fwd)




NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN
B-13, Shivam Flats, Ellora Park, Baroda-390007 * 58, Gandhi Marg, Badwani, M.P.
(email: baroda@narmada.org )

Press Note/ August 10, 2000

Narmada Oustees Sore About The Visit Of Grievance Redressal Authority 
 From Maharashtra :
People Once Again Expose The Rehabilitation Claims

The tribal oustees of the controversial Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) 
from Maharashtra villages did not feel assured with the first ever 
visit of the Chairman of Grievance Redressal Authority (GRA), 
Jusitce(Retd) S.P.Kurdukar. The people felt that the GRA treated the 
basic issues of land, resources and the processes regarding the 
rehabilitation and displacement more on technical ground, instead of 
on the basis of the intrinsic importance.

The GRA visited the SSP affected villages from Manibeli to Domkhedi 
on August 7 and 8, to know about the grievances regarding the 
resettlement and the overall situation regarding the displacement, 
resettlement and land availability etc. However, despite this 
attitude of the GRA, the people have brought forth number of serious 
and basic issues regarding the displacement and resettlement to the 
notice of the Authority. The GRA was appointed according to the 
Supreme Court interim order in May 2000, to go into the grievances 
regarding the resettlement of the oustees from Maharashtra. It was 
also asked to look into the matter of the kind of resettlement that 
occurred hitherto and the prospects of future resettlement and land 
availability. Accordingly, the GRA came to the villages to assess the 
situation of the resettlement and the grievances of the people.

At Kevedia colony, near the dam site, a delegation of oustees from 
Maharashtra, relocated in Gujarat met him. Though they were resettled 
in Gujarat, either the Government of Gujarat or the Government of 
Maharashtra never looked into their abysmal conditions at 
resettlement sites. However, Justice Kurdukar, the GRA for the 
grievances of Maharashtra oustees too refused to look into their 
cases, on the grounds that these were the responsibility of another 
state (Gujarat). He did not entertain the pleas that these oustees 
were from Maharashtra and their cases were not taken seriously by the 
host state, the state of Maharashtra and that the GRA-Maharashtra has 
a responsibility towards ensuring their proper rehabilitation 
according to the Tribunal Award and other state policies. These 
oustees are having several grievances like water logging of their 
lands, bad quality of agricultural land, non-allotment of land for 
cultivation, lack of irrigation etc.

However, instead of treating the issues on merely narrow technical 
ground, the problem of displacement and rehabilitation should have 
been considered in a humane and holistic manner, the people felt. 
People from the affected villages, like Dhankhedi, Chimalkhedi, Gaman 
and other villages were present at Manibeli, the first village in 
Maharashtra to face submergence in 1991, and whose rehabilitation is 
not done till date by the successive governments. They too were not 
happy with the experience of the Authority.

In the last leg of his tour, Justice Kurdukar was received at 
Domkhedi by the village elder Dadlya Karbhari. The three-week-old 
Satyagraha has been going on at Domkhedi . Over 500 village 
representatives and Satyagarhis were present at the time of his 
visit. Several people, including Kesav Vasave (Village Nimgavan), 
Vesta Pawra(Sikka), Dedlibai Vasave (Domkhedi), Noorji Padvi (Danel) 
made the submissions. The submissions were about the land rights 
issue, non-availability of land for rehabilitation, incomplete and 
inadequate surveys, exclusion of adult sons from the government lists 
etc. People also stressed the issues regarding the right to 
information and right to life. They made it clear that the Government 
of Maharashtra does not have adequate land to rehabilitate the large 
number of people the dam would displace, nor was it aware about the 
magnitude of the impacts of displacement.

Medha Patkar of NBA pointed out that the hundreds of tribals are 
still counted as 'encroachers', as they have not been given the land 
titles, as there has been no land settlement after Independence in 
these areas. "This amounts to be a denial of legal and constitutional 
rights of the tribals" she asserted.

Jst. Kurdukar also met a group of 10 people at Dhadgaon (Block 
Headquarters) on the 9th, to dispose off individual cases. Here it 
was again proved that claims regarding the land availability for 
resettlement were illusory and majority of those who were displaced 
were due to the pressure tactics by the government. It was also made 
clear that the government's claims that the majority of people have 
opted for rehabilitation and only a few are left in the villages is 
wrong.



Joe Athialy		M.K. Sukumar








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