The model of development Medha Patkar refers to
is that of the Dilli satellites like Gurgaon and
those other shiny new towns that are being built
to house India's new rich.
One needs to be aware of the context and the
details before one rushes to judgement. It
certainly would have helped to know WHAT the new
so-called Guwahati Master Plan includes, what it
is modelled after and why it was overwhelmingly
rejected.
The Dilli based Planners that Assam Govt ( or
whoever it is) hired to do this so called Master
Plan are quite unfamiliar with Guwahatis and
Assam's needs. They did NOT even attempt to
familiarize themselves with even the most basic
of the parameters that they were dealing with,
before they delivered a plan exactly like those
Dilli satellites for Assam as well.
How do *I* know?
Because I spoke at length to one of the people
from Guwahati who is very involved in it, during
my last trip to Assam. I was impressed by the
fact that he was knowledgeable and he cares. I
asked him how the Guwahatians are viewing it
including himself. He said people were reviewing
it, and he believed it was a TERRIBLE plan. I
agreed, on the basis of what he told me then,
even though I had not seen it myself.
At 7:16 AM -0700 6/19/07, Dilip/Dil Deka wrote:
The shallowness in the thought process of social
activist critic Medha Patkar is so apparent in
the paragraph, "Referring to the proposed
creation of three more towns to expand the
Guwahati metropolitan area, she said that
shopping malls and highways should not be the
yardstick to measure development. The
development approach should also take into
consideration the issues like how many people
are going to be displaced and how many people
are getting their livelihood affected by such
projects."
Anyone who visited Guwahati in recent times
knows how congested Guwahati has become.
Spreading the population to three more urban
areas would surely improve the quality of life.
Shopping malls and highways are not the primary
reasons for the new plan, Guwahatians know well.
As a part of the redistribution of people and
enterprise, if such facilities are needed, they
will definitely emerge as the secondary need.
Does Ms. Patkar know how to make an omelette without breaking an egg?
Dilip Deka
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Reading
Corporate houses will own rivers: Patkar
By Ajit Patowary
GUWAHATI, June 18 Narmada Bachao Andolan-fame
social activist Medha Patkar today warned that
if the proposed projects for linking the rivers
were to be materialized, ownership of the rivers
would go to the corporate houses. She also
alleged that the planners of the country had
been distorting peoples priorities for
development planning.
Patkar, also the convenor of the National
Alliance of Peoples Movements (NAPM), was
speaking to The Assam Tribune on the sidelines
of the two-day national dialogue on environment
and sustainable development organized by the
Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti in the city since
yesterday.
Explaining her assertions, she said that while
planning water resources projects drinking water
should be the first priority. Even in
agricultural sector, priority should be attached
to one crop protection. Wherever there is
drought, we must provide water for one crop
protection. But rules for such distributive
justice are not formulated.
Many states are changing their water policies to
attach higher priority to industrial use of
water than the use of this resource in
agriculture. This is why, hydro power is getting
the top most priority wherever water resources
are plenty, she said.
Similarly, though ground water recharge should
get the top most priority so far as ground water
is concerned, we are allowing the water to run
away. The bottling of water by big capital is
also given higher priority and the bottling
plants are given subsidies. Each of the bottling
plants is drawing between 5 lakh and 25 lakh
litres of water per day.
The rivers are also given to the corporate
houses. If the interlinking of rivers comes
true, corporate houses will be given the right
over our rivers as they will invest for the
projects that require an estimated amount of
around Rs 5,60,000 crore, she said.
On the present development activities in the
country, she said that much of them were based
on corruption and misuse of resources. However,
she clarified that resources should not
exclusively mean financial resources and these
should include also the natural resources.
Natural resources are a kind of capital. This
capital is misused in the sense that instead of
fulfilling the need of the people, it is used to
satiate the greed of the elite class, which
includes the politicians, the bureaucrats, the
contractors and the corporate houses. Though
there are alternative paths to use these
resources, priorities are distorted, she said.
Later, addressing a press conference at the
Guwahati Press Club, she said that Governments
development plans in NE region had been adding
to the sufferings of the regions people. Not
the Armed forces alone, the Governments plans
are also creating havoc for the people here, she
claimed, even as she demanded repeal of the
Armed Forces (Special Power) Act.
The people here are opposing the mega dams
proposed in the region, as, while conceiving
them they were not consulted and their informed
consent was not taken when some of them were
implemented. But the projects are pushed ahead,
she said, adding, the regions own power demand
would be around 7,000 MW at the most.
She also suggested that going by the
recommendations of the World Commission on Dams,
water from the catchments should be tapped
before its reaching the major rivers. This will
make mega dams and the river interlinking
projects redundant if at all the Government has
the resolve to save the people from floods, she
said.
She, however, observed that measures to control
flood control and erosion in the region had been
getting less priority from the state Governments
of the region and also from the Union Government.
The latest move to conduct a seismic survey in
the Brahmaputra riverbed for mineral oil
exploration betrays further the attitude of the
Union Government towards the people of the
region.
This survey will affect the entire system of the
Brahmaputra and also the ecology and people of
the valley, she said.
While dealing with the natural resources of the
NE region there should be a holistic approach
and this approach should be sensitive to both
ecology and the human beings, she asserted.
Referring to the proposed creation of three more
towns to expand the Guwahati metropolitan area,
she said that shopping malls and highways should
not be the yardstick to measure development. The
development approach should also take into
consideration the issues like how many people
are going to be displaced and how many people
are getting their livelihood affected by such
projects.
But the draft master plan for the city has not
taken into consideration all these issues, she
said, adding, displacement had increased by five
to ten times in the country during the past few
years.
Flood and erosion expert Prof D K Mishra also spoke on the occasion.
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