CNS: displacement

Showing posts with label displacement. Show all posts

Are development projects only for the rich?

Shobha Shukla, CNS (Citizen News Service)

Photo courtesy: Channy

Channy Yeam belongs to the minority indigenous Pu Nong tribe, who inhabit the Kbal Romeas village in Stung Treng Province’s Sesan District of Cambodia. She spoke with CNS (Citizen News Service) on the disastrous impact of the development projects, like hydro-electric dams, on the lives of local inhabitants and indigenous communities.

VIP visits proving catastrophic for this slum

Dr Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay Awardee and CNS Columnist

[Video of burning slum] Some 160 families live in a slum opposite the ‘Bhavishya Nidhi Bhawan’ office in Vibhuti Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow. The consist of mostly a scheduled caste community which makes stone items and a muslim community which makes traditional Indian percussion instrument ‘dholak’. In 2009 the Governor was supposed to come and inaugurate the Human Rights Commission office located nearby. So that the poor did not come in the way of Governor, the slum was bulldozed by Lucknow Development Authority. When the Governor’s office came to know about this they felt it would be too embarrassing for the Governor to go and inaugurate the Human Rights Commission after such a human rights violation act had taken place. The Governor never came.

[Images] [हिंदी] About thousand villagers in Reusa Block, Sitapur, staged a Jal Satyagrah by getting down into the waters of river Sharda and standing there all day long on 25-26 February 2013. They were demanding immediate action by the government to start work to stop erosion lest their villages and fields may again get submerged and destroyed by the fury of the swelling river. A population of 50,000 people residing in 20-25 villages are threatened to be displaced by the rising and shifting waters of river Sharda.

Narmada Bachao Andolan has been using Jal Satyagrah since 1993 as a means of protest wherein people facing submergence stay put in waist, or sometimes neck, deep rising waters of the river and endanger their lives. The administration or the government, on the other hand, is busy trying to save people by either forcibly pulling them out of water or agreeing to talk to them on their demands. Last year in Ghoglagaon of Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh people were left standing in water for 17 days and the government was not willing to talk to them until the body parts of some of the people in water started dissolving.

"It would have been an honour to receive Basava award in the name of revolutionary saint poet, philosopher Shri Basaveshwara of 12th century who promoted social change, reform and communal harmony. However, collective opinion of movements I am associated with suggests that Karnataka Government has not been able to deal with the mining scam and other scandals" said Medha Patkar, one of the most respected social activists in India. Medha leads the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM).

[हिंदी] Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Minister of India, convened a pre-budget consultation with a diverse group of people on 17th January 2012 in New Delhi. One of the representatives from social sector was Dr Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay Awardee and noted social activist, who made the following suggestions on budget making and governance.

Photo credit: Joe Athialy

People's Power Vs Builder Shahi : More Join in Struggle from Across the Country
'One man demolition army', G R Khairnar, who took cudgels against the land mafia and the builder lobby as then Deputy Commissioner (Special – Demolitions) between 2000 - 02 today joined Ghar Bhachao Ghar Banao Andolan's ongoing dharna in Ganesh Krupa Society, amidst the debris of broken houses by government authorities in collusion with Builder Lobby. He said, "the fight today led by Medha Patkar and this movement is an important fight. What he did as someone being in the authority is now being taken up by 'people's power'. This struggle needs support and everyone needs to join hand in this." Even as people lent support and they resolved to fight for their rights demolitions continued in Powai, Mankhurd, Worli, and a couple of other places.

Photo credit: Joe Athialy

Slum dwellers continue to join relay fast from across Mumbai
Till the Golibar residents are not provided justice, till the governments does not take strong action against the land scam by Shivalik Ventures linked to 2G scam and does not permanently stop demolition at Golibar the hunger strike by Medha Patkar which has entered third consecutive day today will continue at Golibar, Khar (East), Mumbai. The UPA Government which has promised to fight corruption must take action against corruption at the ground level which has happen right here in Mumbai under its nose.

Senior activist Arvind Murti

[Listen to the CNS audio recording/ podcast of Arvind Murti's speech here]
India may be independent for more than past 63 years but a significant number of its citizens would not yet testify that they have had a chance to enjoy the fruits of freedom. "Although India got its political independence on 15 August 1947, the real ownership to its citizenry had come later on 26 January 1950 when its citizens should have taken ownership mantle, but that hasn't happened so far" said Arvind Murti, senior political and social activist of National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) who is a core team member of Asha Parivar, and Editor of Sachchi Muchchi (Hindi monthly).

A three-Judge Special Bench of the Supreme Court of India comprising Hon'ble Justice Shri JM Panchal, Justice B.S Chouhan and Justice Deepak Verma directed the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to file an affidavit before it by the February 15th, 2011, informing the Court of its decision on the Reports of its own Expert Committee which has fully rejected the Command Area Development (CAD) Plans of the Madhya Pradesh Government with regard to the massive canal network of the Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar canals.

Photo credit: Narmada.org

NAPM has been in existence for about two decades and since 1992 there has been constant endeavour to build alliances. Firebrand social activist Medha Patkar who led the process with many other committed fellow activists, provides a bird's eye-view of two decades of building up of NAPM...
It all started with Harsukh Sammelan in the Narmada Valley where we all started thinking that we must come together as an alliance and we actually went to different states along with some other activists and we decided this because we felt that without that this whole destructive development policies as an issue is not going to be politicised.

BOMBAY HIGH COURT REFUSES TO STAY THE STOP WORK NOTICE ISSUED BY MOEF TO LAVASA FOR CARRYING OUT WORK OF HILL STATION ILLEGALLY
Lavasa Lake City Corporation approached the Bombay High Court’s Division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice S J Kathawala on Thursday to get the stop work notice issued by the Ministry of Environment & Forests stayed. However, the Hon’ble Court refused Lavasa’s stay petition and clubbed the case with the NAPMs petition in the same matter. Read more

National Alliance of
People's Movements (NAPM)

National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) is organizing its Eighth Biennial Convention in the Narmada Valley, at Badwani, Madhya Pradesh, from 24-26 October 2010. Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), which is entering in 25th year of struggle, and is one of the founding members of NAPM will be hosting the convention this time. The journey that started in 1992 and took the shape of NAPM in 1996 has today reached a critical stage. Read more

National Alliance of
People's Movements (NAPM)

Narmada valley is facing yet another crisis beyond the gigantic dams, which has arisen due to the huge canal network of the Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar canals. The canals of these two dams are not yet fully planned, yet certain estimates, which are not yet final by the Narmada Valley Development Authority show that not less than 10,000 hectares of agricultural land is to be acquired, but a larger acquisition is yet to come up in numerous villages, where even a basic socio-economic survey of the affected land and families is yet to be undertaken. Read more

Justice Shravan Shankar Jha Commission of Inquiry constituted by the Madhya Pradesh (MP) High Court in August 2008 to enquire into the multi-crore scam of fake registries of Sardar Sarovar affected victims started its next phase of proceedings in Alirajpur today. The immensely corrupt nexus of authorities and touts has derailed implementation the rehabilitation of the Sardar Sarovar Project oustees and has denied the affected, their right to agricultural land. This large scale corruption in the whole process has led to a loss worth crores of rupees to the treasury of the Indian State. Read more

Tribunal expresses grave concern on severe non-compliance by authorities
A Panel of eminent citizens who came together as an Independent People's Tribunal (IPT) to assess the true scale and impacts of the large dam-projects in the natural-resource rich region of the Narmada Valley, delivered their verdict today on various aspects concerning the massive displacement, rehabilitation, environmental compliance and overall cost-benefits of the Sardar Sarovar and Jobat Projects as also the large canals of Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar. Read more

A legal notice was issued by the Narmada Bachao Andolan to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, on the issue of continued land acquisition and excavation for the large canals of Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar, which is causing an irreversible damage to the best of agricultural land in the region. Read more

Time for pronouncement of award: People's Tribunal on Narmada

Pronouncement of Award on Sardar Sarovar, Indira Sagar, Omkareshwar and Jobat
You must be aware of the Sardar Sarovar Project embroiled in the controversy over last 25 years. The project has now reached a critical juncture with 2 lakh (200,000) people still in the submergence area while the authorities who are monitoring social and environmental measures have been reporting non-compliance. The cost and benefits are being questioned by various authorities and organizations, while the Planning Commission has recently given a revised investment clearance of Rs. 39,000 crores. Read more

An Independent People's Tribunal (IPT) led by Hon'ble Justice (retd) AP Shah (Retired Chief Justice, Delhi and Mumbai High Court), Dr. Devinder Sharma (International Researcher and Agriculture Policy Analyst) and Prof. Jaya Sagade (Faculty, Indian Law Society, Law College, Pune) concluded their two-day visit and mass public hearing in the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) affected region in Narmada valley today evening. Read more