On September 17, a Jan Sunvai (People’s hearing) was organised by the NBA in which the farmers, farm labourers, fishermen and others from the valley narrated their woes in the presence of a panel of social activists, including Gandhians and representatives of the Communist Parties.

The main grouse of the oustees is that the Supreme Court’s 2017 judgment regarding rehabilitation was not being implemented by the government. The speakers at the Jansuvai said that the oustees do not have water to drink, food to eat, land to till and house to stay in. They do not have any means of livelihood. They are being forced to lead the life of gypsies.

They say that the rehabilitation of the oustees has to be completed six months before submergence and land-for-land is to be the guiding principle of the rehabilitation process. However, the government is paying the compensation in cash. This is leading to the oustees frittering away the money on buying unneeded vehicles and holding lavish marriage ceremonies etc, pushing them into penury. Left without money or land, they are migrating to big cities and doing menial jobs there.

The oustees also alleged that many villages have not been included in the submergence zone though they are surrounded by the swirling waters backwaters of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on Narmada. “We are fighting for the past 34 years but justice has not been done to us. Our houses have become islands but the authorities say that we are not entitled to any compensation as our village is not in the submergence zone,” said Dadubhai from village Ekaldara.

Sadhna Bai from Dhanora village questioned, “How could authorities declare ‘zero balance of unrehabilitated families’ when people are still living in tin sheds without food and water. What about the education of our children? We have neither received any plots nor any compensation.”

The oustees alleged that the tin-sheds in which they are being forced to live have no place for their cattle, forcing them to dispose of their cows and buffaloes. “Two families are sharing a 12 feet by 18 feet shed,” said Mansaram Bhai from Chikhlada.

Pawan Solanki from Bhadal village said that the residents have to travel by private boats to reach their village. “The ride takes 25 minutes and we have to pay for it from our own pockets,” he said.

Grazing grounds have got submerged, leading to a sharp drop in the livestock population in the Valley. The displaced fishermen have lost their source of livelihood. They are not allowed to fish in the Narmada waters. A spokesperson for the fishermen demanded they be given the contract to fish in the Narmada. “We will die but not allow anyone else to fish in the Narmada”, he said.

According to a study by Maitrayee Puranik from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, a large number of children in the submergence zone have dropped out of schools because the government schools have not been relocated or have been relocated too far for young children to reach them on foot. The rehabilitation sites also lack aaganwadis, health facilities and even cremation grounds.

Former Madhya Pradesh chief secretary SC Behar said that the Sardar Sarovar Dam was filled to the brim abruptly and without any warning just for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday. He said that forcing people to live in tin sheds was making a mockery of rehabilitation. “Those who are being forced out of their land and their homes in the name of larger public interest cannot be forced to lead a sub-human existence. They should get all the facilities needed for leading a dignified life,” he said.

Patkar alleged that the Gujarat Government’s “illegal and inhuman” decision to fill up the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat its full level of138.68 metres resulted in flooding of land and houses. Thousands of families waiting to be rehabilitated were still living in the villages when the backwaters of the river submerged everything.

She urged the state government to constitute a state-level committee for rehabilitation of the people from Madhya Pradesh displaced by the backwaters of Sardar Sarovar.

“We demand that the government constitute a state-level committee comprising five members of the NBA and of relevant departments for rehabilitation of the people,” she told media persons.

She said that a consensus has been reached between the protestors and the government over some of the demands. However, she said, the agitation would end only when government issues formal orders.

The oustees have held several rounds of talks with senior officers of the NVDA. In the meetings, the villagers raised of they not being paid crop insurances despite their standing crops getting submerged. They said that in Barwani district alone, about 13,000 farmers, who had taken crop insurance, are waiting for their claims. (IPA Service)