ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Chief Minister Dodges Anti-dam Activists

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Dev Raj

NEW DELHI, May 11 1998 (IPS) - The Chief Minister of central Madhya Pradesh state, Digvijay Singh, cancelled, Monday, a scheduled visit to the Maheshwar dam site evading Indian activists waiting there to present him with the “Maheshwar Declaration.”

Activists of the Narmada Bachao Andolan or Save the Narmada Movement (NBA) said the chief minister had instead called a meeting at Indore city, 100 kms north-east of the dam site.

“Obviously the chief minister has succumbed to pressure from the private developer, S. Kumars,” NBA activist, Shripad Dharmadhikari told IPS in a phone interview.

By cancelling the visit, the chief minister also avoided a confrontation with NBA leader, Medha Patkar who is one of the 12 commissioners of the newly created World Commission on Dams.

The declaration condemns the repression of peaceful protests at the Maheshwar dam and the breaking by the government of its own written commitment to suspend construction work at the dam.

Dharmadhikari admitted that the chief minister’s attitude cast a shadow on the fate of the ‘task force’ constituted by the government, the NBA and independent experts to look into the Maheshwar dam issue.

The chief minister had recently also announced that the dam would be built under any circumstances, which the NBA saw as an attempt to dilute the authority of the task force.

However, Dharmadhikari said the NBA would try to continue with attempts to keep the dialogue open. “Even if there is just a one percent chance of talks succeeding we will try to continue negotiating,” he said.

For that reason, the NBA plans to send its representatives to Indore although the group which has been spearheading the agitation to review the entire Narmada valley project does not expect anything to come out of it.

“We have to keep the dialogue open because the task force was constituted to review the entire Narmada valley project although the Maheshwar dam was to have been given priority attention,” Dharmadhikari said.

The Maheshwar dam project, when complete could submerge 5,000 hectares of land and displace 2,200 families while adversely affecting the livelihoods of thousands more.

But according to Dharmadhikari, the stiff popular opposition to the project, the first farmed out to a private developer, has put paid to the dam.

Although the Digvijay government had, in January, issued a written order announcing that it would suspend construction pending a comprehensive review of costs, benefits and alternatives, the developer, S. Kumars, suddenly resumed construction in early April.

Protected by a force of 1,500 police, ban orders were clamped on the site but by mid-April several thousand people had recaptured the dam site defying mass arrests and a siege by police.

Presently, all construction at the site has been halted by groups of between forty and fifty protesters barricading the four entry points to the site, Dharmadhikari said. “No vehicle has been let in for the past three days,” he said.

According to NBA activists, S. Kumars is under compulsion to show some construction activity at the dam to satisfy the German financiers of the project, Bayerische Vereinsbank.

At a meeting of the task force on Mar. 4, S. Kumars made a request that it be allowed to resume construction for “safety purposes,” but the NBA seeing a ruse to continue construction and reassure financiers, did not agree.

S. Kumars received a setback when the PacGen, listed as one of the biggest equity holders in the project wrote to NBA stating “we do not intend to participate further in the (Maheshwar) project.”

PacGen, a former subsidiary of the U.S energy utility PacficCorp also undertook not to participate in the project in the future unless the “needs of the mass of affected people be properly addressed and consensus regarding how the project proceeds is reached by all stakeholders including the NBA.”

The NBA delegation, which may not include Patkar, will now carry to Indore the Maheshwar declaration which shows huge international support for the protesters.

The declaration has been endorsed by 186 environment, human

rights, women’s and labour organisations from India and 35 other countries.

Meanwhile, Siemens AG and Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) which are believed to have signed contracts to supply generating and other equipment are under pressure by S. Kumar to buy equity in the project.