Dear Sudhir:
I read your appeals to the Prime Minister and the
President.
Hats off to your principled stance and the lonely battles. You
make this long distance observer very proud!
Forgive my cynicism, but I expect little or nothing to come out
of it. If for no other reason than the fact that in a supposedly
democratic society individuals cannot and should not be able to hold
such powers to dictate actions or outcomes, while the institutions of
democracy that the people have a right to depend on remain
dysfunctional and thoroughly inconsequential. And I am not
attempting a feeble 'reverse psychology'here either. But to NOT
stand up and take a stand for what we believe in would rob us of our
humanity, that so many in the seats of power have so little use for,
as has been demonstrated over and over again!
But this system of arbitrary actions without accountability,
while invoking fealty to democratic principles must be changed. There
is no other way out. To that end, good luck and godspeed!
Best,
Chandan
At 6:05 PM +0530 3/29/06, Vombatkere wrote:
MOST URGENT
Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere, VSM (Retd) 475, 7th Main Road
M.E (Struct), PhD (I.I.T), F.I.E (India), C.Eng Vijayanagar 1st Stage
E-mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] MYSORE 570 017
Tel : 0821-2515187 29 March 2006
To,
The President of India
Rashtrapati Bhavan
New Delhi
By E-MAIL
Respected Rashtrapatiji Shri A.P.J. Abdul Kalam,
You may not recall, but I had the honour and privilege of meeting you in the Rashtrapati Bhavan library along with Shri Kuldip Nayar, Shri L.C.Jain, Shri Ramaswamy Iyer, Smt. Medha Patkar and Shri Himanshu Thakkar, on 20th April last year, when we discussed the interlinking of rivers project. I thank you for the perspectives that you offered in that connection. Most vivid in my mind is the concern that you showed for our people in Bihar and Assam who are afflicted by annual floods, and that is the reason for my present letter.
I would like to inform you that there are many more of our people who will be flooded out of hearth and home in the Narmada Valley, and be left to fend for themselves if the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam is raised to 121-m from the present 110-m. As I write, the construction work is proceeding rapidly. Quite naturally, you might ask what the matter is if construction work proceeds rapidly. But here the problem is that the people who are in the submergence zone of the dams 121-m level have not been rehabilitated even though the Supreme Court has mandated that the dam height shall not be raised until their rehabilitation is complete. (As a matter of fact, there are still many hundreds of families in the 110-m submergence zone who have not yet been rehabilitated!). Again, quite naturally, you may ask what is the basis of my stating that rehabilitation has not been completed. In this connection I have but two points to make.
Point One. There are about 250 people, members of some of the thousands of families out there in the submergence zone, who have been peacefully demonstrating for many days before the Ministry of Water Resources and now at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, for stopping the construction work immediately and not starting again until they are rehabilitated according to the Supreme Courts judgement. If their problem was not genuine they would not have come so far from home to peacefully demonstrate and demand their basic rights and in return be humiliated and beaten by the Police in pre-Independence British style.
Point Two. The rehabilitation data (Action Taken Reports) that are being given to the Supreme Court by the state governments of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat are false. The Rehabilitation Sub-group of the Narmada Control Authority which is to monitor rehabilitation on the basis of the Narmada Tribunal Award or the Supreme Courts judgments, has not visited the Narmada Valley since year 2000 (2000). Also, except for once, the Grievance Redressal Authority has not visited the Narmada Valley, while no minister from Government of India has ever seen fit to visit and meet our affected people.
I am sure you will appreciate how these unfortunate people are trapped in the machinations of a nexus of certain corrupt politicians and officials and the construction industry that provides false information to the Supreme Court, which in turn only acts on information that it receives. This nexus also uses police action to threaten and beat these people in the Narmada Valley. Thus, our people have nowhere to turn to for succour.
I had taken the opportunity to make a personal 4-days visit to the Narmada Valley in late November 2005, travelling by jeep, on foot and in boats to meet our people in the rehabilitation gaothans and also our people who are living in the submergence zone because they have nowhere to go. (I am ATTACHING a small file regarding my visit that I will request you to read. Even though they had been and are still being ill-treated by government, I recall how one young man spoke of the merits of non-violence according to Gandhiji).
I would like to make a point here. I learn from the newspapers that around 120 districts of India are affected by Naxal or Maoist violence. Do we need to frustrate more people so that they fall into the inviting arms of such violent groups? Involuntary displacement of people creates dissatisfaction at the very least and often militancy, because people who are displaced by mega-projects always are poorer after displacement, having lost their livelihoods. Can we ever imagine that such people will look upon the "State" as benevolent? Especially when they see that they are paying the cost of development of another section of people, their frustration, disappointment and anger only increase. But in the present case, even the rightful due of compensation mandated by the Supreme Court is being systematically denied to them by government officials who stand to gain from the construction of the dam. I can only ask if it is fair that we treat our people so.
You are known as a peoples President and you have shown your concern for the sufferings of our people when we met in April last. I therefore appeal to you, Sir, to use your considerable influence to relieve the pain and fears of our people of the Narmada Valley and give them justice by:
(1) Directing Government to immediately stop the construction work of raising the dam height to 121-m because that is an irrevocable (and illegal) step in view of rehabilitation not being complete according to the Supreme Court's orders, and
(2) Directing strict and immediate action against officials who have been deliberately giving false Action Taken Reports, making inaccurate cadastral and population surveys, illegally offering cash compensation instead of Supreme Court mandated land-for-land, and harassing our poor people by Police force in the Narmada Valley.
Praying for your immediate action, and with my respectful regards,
Yours faithfully,
Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere (Retd)
ATTACHED: File of 42.5 kB.
Attachment converted: Macintosh HD:2005.12.01-NARMADA D#860292.doc (WDBN/«IC») (00860292)
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