Author: Anil Patel
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 6, 2006
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/7928.html
Introduction: Most of the tribals from hilly
areas have already resettled in Gujarat, while the farmers in Nimad who are
not losing any land are opposing the project!
The Supreme Court hears the Narmada case on
July 10. The Shunglu Committee's report on resettlement and rehabilitation
(R&R) will be part of the government's submission. Certain familiar arguments
by those against the dam will be heard again, primary among them that this
monsoon will see the ruin of thousands when the dam's height is raised to
121.92 m. This is gross exaggeration. No such thing is likely to happen even
when the dam is fully constructed up to 138.64 m.
It is true that about 33,000 families in 193
villages of Madhya Pradesh will be affected when the dam is fully built. The
key word is "affected", which does not mean all these project-affected
families (PAFs) will be totally uprooted. The submergence pattern in MP is
such that a large majority of these PAFs would lose only their houses or houses
and very little land. They may have to shift their houses to a higher plane,
but their means of livelihood and social and cultural structure will remain
intact.
Out of the total 55,800 hectares of agricultural
land in these villages, about 6500 ha (12 per cent) will be submerged. In
55 villages (with 8000 PAFs) virtually no (less than 1 per cent) agricultural
land will be submerged. In 70 villages (9600 PAFs) land submergence is 1-10
per cent. In 49 villages (12500 PAFs) it is 11-50 per cent. Only in 19 villages
(2900 PAFs) will more than 50 per cent of the agricultural land be submerged.
As per the Narmada Tribunal award, only those PAFs who lose more than 25 per
cent of their land have to be given land (minimum 2 ha per family), while
those who lose houses or houses and very little land have to be given house
plots and other civic amenities in the vicinity.
The submergence pattern and the award make
it very clear that the two types of PAFs must be clearly distinguished to
gauge the true nature and extent of displacement. Yet, this is what the MP
government has consistently failed to do. We believe this has been deliberate,
because until 2000 it was tacitly and often even openly supporting the "no
dam" movement.
In the absence of clear information, we have
analysed village-wise data given by Madhya Pradesh in its Action Plan of March
1993 and estimated that about 8000-9000 PAFs in MP are required to be given
land for land and the remaining 24,000 PAFs have to shift their houses to
a higher plane. The MP government recently corroborated this estimate in its
affidavit before the Supreme Court, where it stated that apart from those
already resettled in Gujarat, only 4286 PAFs remain who have to be given land
in MP - 5456 PAFs, including 863 landless labourers, from MP have resettled
in Gujarat. This means the number of PAFs losing more than 25 per cent land
in MP is 8879.
Besides, half the remaining 24,000 PAFs are
those whose houses will not be submerged, but are acquired as they might be
temporarily affected by backwaters in the rare event of a big flood. This
is clear from NCA reports of 1993 and 1995, quoted by the Supreme Court in
its 2000 judgment. The extent of this backwater effect has also been exaggerated
because the Central Water Commission, while making these calculations, did
not take into consideration the moderating impact on the floods by upstream
dams at Indira Sagar and other sites.
It is also not true that most of the PAFs
in MP are from tribal areas. Only 53 villages (with 7000 PAFs) are in hilly
tribal areas. The remaining 140 villages (26,000 PAFs) are in Nimad, where
Patidars and Rajputs are dominant. While the tribals in hilly areas are almost
all poor, Nimad's farmers are rich, practising modern irrigated agriculture.
While most of the PAFs in hilly areas stand to lose both land and houses,
in Nimad only about 4000 of the 26,000 PAFs would lose more than 25 per cent
of their land. Most of the tribals from hilly areas have already resettled
in Gujarat, while the farmers in Nimad who are not losing any land are opposing
the project!
Now, R&R status. The most important problem
concerns the resettlement of 8879 PAFs, who have to be given land. As discussed
above, 4593 families have already resettled in Gujarat and received a minimum
of 2 ha of land and other benefits. In addition, 863 landless labourer families
have been given land and other benefits in Gujarat. Most of them are from
hilly areas.
Of the remaining 4286 PAFs, 3879 have accepted
the Special Resettlement Package of an average of Rs 5.7 lakh offered by the
MP government to buy irrigated land of their choice - about 1000 families
have already purchased land. There is an effort to make this last package
controversial. But the PAFs losing land do not seem to have much objection
against it. Else, they would not have accepted it in such large numbers. In
any case, what is important is they get land of their choice, whether they
buy it out of the amount given by the government or the government buys it
and then gives it to them.
The MP government has established more than
80 sites in the vicinity of the old villages for the R&R of those PAFs
who would lose only houses. House plots and other civic amenities have either
been developed or are in the process of being developed.
In the end, let us examine what could happen
this monsoon as a result of the dam height being raised to 121.92 m. The much
quoted figure of 23,320 PAFs of 177 villages likely to be affected in this
regard does not refer to PAFs whose lands or houses would be submerged during
this monsoon, but to PAFs who might be temporarily affected by backwater in
case of a rare flood.
The real issue is that of those PAFs whose
land or houses would actually be submerged during this monsoon. The MP government
has said that 28 villages will be affected by partial submergence. Most of
the PAFs from these 28 villages have already resettled in Gujarat. But there
are a few pockets where, under the influence of the Narmada Bachao Andolan,
some PAFs have not yet accepted the R&R package. It is possible that the
lands or houses of some of these PAFs will be submerged. It is about time
that we all focussed on this real issue instead of raising imaginary scares.
The article was written with Ambrish Mehta.
The writers are members of ARCH-Vahini, which works for resettlement and rehabilitation
of tribals in Gujarat, Maharashtra and MP
anil.patel@expressindia.com
