Thousands of people affected by the Omkareshwar, Maheshwar, Indira Sagar, Upper Beda and Man dams responded to a call by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) and joined a protest march at Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday to raise their voice against the state government decision to raise the water level in Omkares-hwar Dam up to 193 metres.
After the protest march, the people affected by the dams announced that they would start a “Jal Satyagrah” from July 16 against what they described as a “conspiracy” by the state government and the private company involved in the project to uproot the dam affected people without their rehabilitation or proper resettlement. On this occasion, they announced their resolve emphasising that they would sacrifice their life but not leave their villages without prior rehabilitation and resettlement and allotment of land as per the rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) policy.
Addressing the protesters, leading NBA activist Alok Agarwal condemned the state government for “blatantly violating” the Orders of the Supreme Court. He pointed out that in its judgment in May 2011 on the issue of rehabilitation and resettlement of the oustees of the Omkareshwar project, the Supreme Court had held that it was the constitutional obligation of the project authorities to allot a minimum of two hectares of agricultural land to each displaced family.