Thousands of Narmada dam project oustees formed a human chain from Neelam Park to Yadgar-e-Shahjahani Park in the State capital on the third day of the five-day long Narmada Jeevan Adhikar Satyagrah and Upwaas led by Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) on Sunday.
A delegation of NBA leaders also met Narmada Valley Development Minister Kanhaiyalal Agrawal and presented before him a charter of demands and urged the government to take concrete steps towards fulfillment of the same.
The protesters raised loud slogans demanding just rehabilitation and compensation and also criticized the State government for its failure to implement Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy. The protesters, including a majority of women who have come from the project affected areas of Omkareshwar, Maheshwar, Maan and Upper Beda dams proclaimed loudly that if the government fails to provide just rehabilitation it will face adverse consequences in the coming elections.
The protesters have also warned that if the government is not in a position to provide rehabilitation to the dam affected families than the dam should be emptied and all the submerged land should be returned to the oustees.
The administration had made large scale arrangements to prevent any mishap or traffic chaos as the protesters had already made public their intention to form human chain. However, traffic was affected in the stretch between Neelam Park and Shahajahni Park, but no untoward incident was reported.
Meanwhile, the five-day long protests have also received support from several quarters in the city. Several organizations including Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M), Communist Party of India – Marxist-leninist (CPI-Ml), Jan Sangharsh Morcha, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and others have extended support to the democratic demands of the protesters.
Justifying the protests, Alok Agrawal of NBA said, “Thousands of families have been arbitrarily excluded from the lists of displaced families, and thousands of houses falling in the submergence area have been denied compensation, in order to save the rehabilitation expenses for the authorities and the dam building companies, because of which the very lives of the oustees are in threat, and they have been reduced to penury.”
“The oustees of these five dams are fighting for their life in a united struggle. The oustees are now fed up of the callousness of the authorities and are seeking to exercise their democratic rights to insist that they be provided their legal and fundamental rights, and treated like human beings,” he added.