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Narmada Update 7th August, 2006

NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN
62 Gandhi Marg, Badwani, M.P. Ph. 07290-222464, 09893204498, badwaninarmada.org
Maitri Niwas, Tembewadi, Dhadgaon, Nandurbar, Maharashtra. Ph: 02595-220620
C/o B-13, Shivam Flats, Ellora Park, Baroda-390023 0265-2282232 barodanarmada.org

Press Release 7th August, 2006

report(pls see attachment): please use and circulate

The swirling waters of Narmada have increased up to 127 meters on Monday and submerged almost all the villages of Maharashtra along with the two Jeevan shalas in Manibeli and Danel, as torrential rains lashed the entire Western India. Despite the large scale destruction and submergence the people in the Narmada valley remained steadfast in their resolve to resist the imposition of unjust displacement.

Over 120 stranded children from the Jeevan Shalas and their teachers took hold of the Police barge on August 6. When the police arrested them and took them to the dam site, they took out the march against the displacement and the dam in Gujarat. They all were brought to Akkalkua.

Meanwhile, after the Satyagraha in Rajghat, the main activists and the supporters went to Bhitada overcoming the rains, slush and increasing dam waters. After the Satyagraha of Bhitada was launched on August 6, activists including Medha Patkar went to Chimalkhedi. Narmada was swollen and became too wide due to heavy rains and the 119 meters of the dam. The huge mountains are half under the water. It was an awesome, horrifying face of Nature. The situation is extremely grave."

Additionally, all roads leading towards the valley are blocked due to the heavy downpour. Apart from the cutting off the mountain routes, the waters have blocked the entry from Dhadgaon, from Madhya Pradesh or Gujarat to the villages affected by the Sardar Sarovar dam. The only barge available belonged to the Maharashtra police and they proved rather hesitant and did not help the people.

In the rehabilitation sites in Gujarat also, almost all the fields of resettlement villages were inundated, destroying crops. In many sites such as Karnet, Thuvavi etc water has entered into the houses! In Maharashtra the waters entered in the houses in Vadchhil and Javda and one ënullahí burst, destroying the houses and sown fields.

Keshav Vasave from Maharashtra pointed out that not only the Madhya Pradesh government, but Maharashtra government too failed to provide any decent and legal resettlement to the tribal oustees in the state. ìThere are no basic services like drinking water, fodder, fuel, cultivable land, protection from rains in these places. We are cheated and live the life of destitutes".

In such a situation, the fate of over 30,000 families in Madhya Pradesh cannot be imagined. In Rajghat, on the second day of Satyagraha, the people decried the deliberate tactics by the Prime Minister's office and other bureaucrats to illegally increase the height of the dam and impose the submergence over 1,00,000 people during this monsoon.

Sanjay Sangvai M.K. Sukumar Prof. Shyam Patil

Summary of NBA's Critique of the Shunglu Committee/ OSG

report(pls see attachment): please use and circulate

Dear Friends,

The struggle by the Sardar Sarovar affected people in the Narmada Valley is on, when the Dam has reached the height of 119 mts and stopped. The Prime Minister and Supreme Court have not intervened as yet and relied almost fully on the Survey by the Oversight Group chaired by Mr. Shunglu, the former Comptroller and Auditor General of India. The Report by OSG was submitted to the Supreme Court on July 10th at noon, and it was without any adjudication that the SC agreed with the PM's remark: "The OSG seems to have given a fairly accurate picture of the facts and circumstances as they obtained on the ground."

The PM also has stated that "While R&R work brought out in the report can be remedied by the accelerated pace of implementation, I am of the view that it would not be appropriate, especially in light of the material and observations contained in the report, to pass any direction or orders at this stage, stopping the construction of the dam... designed to serve a larger public interest."

What is the reality? How far has the OSG (Shunglu Committee) report brought forth a true picture? Is the data complete to conclude on the legal compliance related to Resettlement and Rehabilitation of the oustees? Does it show that all the thousands of families to be affected at 122 mts. or affected at even a lower height are rehabilitated with fairness and justice? Was the three Central Minister's report 'flawed' or false? Does the report establish that the decision to raise the dam height, on which there was so much of hue and cry, was right and without a legal violation?

The Shunglu Report is up on the website of the Ministry of Water Resources ( http://wrmin.nic.in) and the Narmada Bachao Andolan has brought out a detailed critique of the same. This has opened a serious controversy over the PMO-appointed committee, its functioning, the survey by NSSO and the report with conclusions and recommendations.

Best regards,
Ashish Mandloi, Medha Patkar and the people of the Narmada Valley.

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