INDIA: Vicious and brute force by the state against villagers and media in Khardrapani 

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) that the Madhya Pradesh state administration has illegally arrested and detained activists associated with the NBA and villagers who were protesting against the increase of water level in the controversial Indira Sagar Dam in Khardrapani village of Harda district in Madhya Pradesh. Just as it was concerning the protest by the villagers in Omkareshwar Dam, the villagers have been staying in neck-deep water for the past 15 days demanding the state to decrease the water level in the Indira Sagar Dam asking the state to first compensate the villagers for the land and livelihood they have lost before raising the water level in the dam to its envisaged capacity limit of 261 meters.

It is reported that gaining spirit from the partial success concerning the Omkareshwar Dam, the villagers from Ghogalgaon in Khandwa district tried joining their compatriot at Khardrapani village. However by then the Harda district administration, under instructions from the state administration, had deployed a huge contingent of police force in and around Khardrapani village. The police had closed all roads leading to the protest site and had prevented the media from reporting the news. Today, the police moved in with force and took into custody the villagers. Before the action the police had disconnected the communication links of the media so that the news could not be broadcast.

The state action, on one hand refusing to pay compensation and adequately rehabilitate the villagers and on the other preventing them from peacefully protesting against the state’s wilful neglect coupled with the state’s brute use of force even against the media is a matter of extreme concern. One of the state cabinet ministers, Mr. Kailash Vijayvargiya, the day before yesterday had said that the people must know that the state is all powerful and that a bunch of villagers cannot be expected to bring the state to the negotiation table on disputes with the state. The statement is mean and disrespectful to the very notion of democracy, a concept by which Mr. Vijayvargiya and the government he is part of was voted to power. The statement also illuminates the despicable and dictatorial mindset of persons running the state, in this case, a cabinet minister who entertains complete disrespect to his own people, for whom he is in office at the expense of this very same people and their money they pay to the state as tax.

Allegations that in fact Mr. Vijayvargiya is one of the masterminds who is selling the natural resources of the state to private interests at the expense of the nation gains weight under these circumstances. Additionally, the state’s legal and moral responsibility to compensate those who have lost their land and livelihood must be held paramount, which is legally beyond negation by a rouge minister who wishes to make private gains by selling national resources to private entities.

A blog page created by the AHRC on the NBA’s protest against the Omkareshwar and Indira Sagar Dam is available at http://jalsatyagrah.blogspot.hk/

CASE NARRATIVE:

The Indira Sagar Dam is the largest hydroelectric project of the controversial Narmada Valley Project. Many question the human, social and ecological impact of the project, to the extent that earlier funders have withdrawn support to the project even before its completion. The callous nature of implementation of the project is evidenced from the absolute lack of exact data available with the government, state and central, as to the impact of the project upon the people and their habitats, against which the local villagers are protesting today. The latest of two protests, one against the increase of water level in Omkareshwar Dam and the present, against the increase of water level in the Indira Sagar Dam are two examples how the state has completely ignored people’s concerns where the projects are implemented and how the state lacks adequate data even to process complaints and claims by the villagers who have lost their land and livelihood to the project.

The protest by the villagers in Khardrapani village of Harda district in Madhya Pradesh has been going on for the past 15 days. Similar to the protest by villagers against the Omkareshwar project, villagers have been standing in neck-deep water demanding the state administration to satisfactorily compensate the villagers for the land and livelihood lost for the project and further to demand the state implement the Supreme Court’s directives as to providing first settling the compensation claims by the villagers before water levels are increased.

Fearing similar pressure, as it was in the case of the Omkareshwar project, the state government had issued a prohibitory order under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 in Harda on 11 September. Ironically, the reason stated for the prohibitory order is “health risk” to the villagers should they continue remain in water. Fearing arrest, the protesters moved further into the reservoir of the dam in some cases as far as 200 meters into the water, risking their lives from drowning. The state government directed the district administration to send a huge contingent of police force to Khardrapani village where the protest against Indira Sagar Dam was going on. By evening, the police had blocked all roads to the village and further stopped the media from reporting the events.

Today, the police moved in and arrested the villagers from the water. It is also reported that the police before they started ‘fishing’ protesters from the water had disconnected the connectivity of the media that was present at the sight.

The state action, on one hand refusing to pay compensation and adequately rehabilitate the villagers and on the other preventing them from peacefully protesting against the state’s wilful neglect coupled with the state’s brute use of force even against the media is a matter of extreme concern. One of the state cabinet ministers, Mr. Kailash Vijayvargiya, the day before yesterday had said that the people must know that the state is all powerful and that a bunch of villagers cannot be expected to bring the state to the negotiation table on disputes with the state. The statement is mean and disrespectful to the very notion of democracy, a concept by which Mr. Vijayvargiya and the government he is part of was voted to power. The statement also illuminates the despicable and dictatorial mindset of persons running the state, in this case, a cabinet minister who entertains complete disrespect to his own people, for whom he is in office at the expense of this very same people and their money they pay to the state as tax.

Allegations that in fact Mr. Vijayvargiya is one of the masterminds who is selling the natural resources of the state to private interests at the expense of the nation gains weight under these circumstances. Additionally, the state’s legal and moral responsibility to compensate those who have lost their land and livelihood must be held paramount, which is legally beyond negation by a rouge minister who wishes to make private gains by selling national resources to private entities.

The fallacy of development is exposed from the fact that more than 5o percent of the electricity generated from these projects are sold to private entities, whereas more than 70 percent of the people depend on kerosene. The protest by the villagers is not to stop the running of an already commissioned hydroelectric project, but demanding their government to compensate the lands and livelihood they have lost to the project. It is shame that the government is pushing the very same people that elected them to power to resort to drastic life threatening forms of protest, so that their grievances are heard.

The arrest of the villagers is a knee jerk reaction by the state, fearing in fact the power of the villagers, that has proven capable of bringing the might of the state to a negotiation point, country to what Mr. Vijayvargiya claims. Equally despicable is the action by the state against the media, preventing them from reporting the event.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
In the light of these facts, the AHRC urges you to intervene in the case calling upon the Government of Madhya Pradesh to stop immediately the increase in water level in the Indira Sagar Dam and to take all necessary actions with the assistance of organisations like the NBA to adequately rehabilitate those who have lost their land and livelihood to the project. It is also highly desirable that the government take all possible measures to release immediately the villagers and NBA activists who have been arrested today. It is also required that the government ensure a proper, acceptable and open audit of the villages that are adversely affected by the Indira Sagar project and similar other projects.

The AHRC is also writing separate letters to the UN Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment calling for further intervention in this case.

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