Article Courtesy: Association for India's Development

Honorable Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh,

We, the undersigned, are writing this letter to ensure that the farmers and tribals displaced by the Sardar Sarovar and Maheswar dams are satisfactorly resettled and rehabilitated and that there is full compliance with environmental safeguards, before any permission is given for further construction work on these dams.

We deeply appreciate the fact that the Central Government has recently ordered suspension of work on the Maheshwar dam since the oustees are not resettled and rehabilitated, as per the requirements of the environmental clearance dated 01.05.2001. While over 80% of the construction work of the Maheshwar dam has been completed a mere 5% of the 70,000 oustees have been rehabilitated. Rehabilitation has not happened at the same pace as construction, as per the requirements. Even the full extent of submergence is yet to be known since the backwater survey has not been done.

In the case of the Sardar Sarovar dam, recognizing that tens of thousands of families facing submergence at 121.9 meters were not rehabilitated, as Prime Minister of India you had personally assured during monsoon of 2006 that their rehabilitation would be completed within 3 months. Based on your guarantee and recommendation, the dam was raised to 121.9 mts. Not only was their rehabilitation not achieved in 2006, but even today in 2010, over 30,000 of these families are yet to be rehabilitated. These include tribal families displaced by the Sardar Sarovar dam who are still awaiting agricultural land for land rehabilitation as decreed by the Narmada Tribunal Award and Supreme Court. While their own lands have been submerged by the dam several years ago, alternate cultivable lands have not yet been identified to be given to them. Recently, the Devendra Pandey Committee has in its interim report to the MoEF, taken cognizance of the non-compliance of Sardar Sarovar and Indira Sagar dams to environmental safeguard measures and has recommended that no further construction be permitted.

We are dismayed at the responses of the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan who has requested you to lift the suspension of Maheswar dam based on his personal guarantee that rehabilitation will be done and that of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who has requested you for help in further raising of the Sardar Sarovar to 138.6 mts despite the fact that his government has not completed the canal system in Gujarat and is not able to fully utilize the waters available at 121.9 mts height, while the rehabilitation of tens of thousands displaced is still pending.

As Prime Minister you have promised rehabilitation to the displaced villagers of the Narmada valley and you must keep your promise. This time you must ensure that no further construction is permitted on Sardar Sarovar and Maheshwar dams without the actual resettlement and rehabilitation of all families and full compliance with all environmental and R&R safeguard measures.   If dams proceed based on unfulfilled promises and political expediency, there is little hope after their construction,  for the enormous number of people who are displaced and sacrificed at the altar of poor planning and corrupt governance that is not held accountable to the laws of the nation and to the unassailable values of  human  and fundamental rights.

  Sincerely,

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