First resettle, then submerge

The prime minister must make it clear that no citizen is dispensable

The Supreme Court8217;s refusal to suspend work on the Sardar Sarovar dam, even in the absence of rehabilitation, shows once again that law and reality do not necessarily inhabit the same universe. What sort of reply does it expect the state governments to give on rehabilitation by May 1, when they have not fulfilled their promises for years together?

The prime minister can still intervene on the side of law and the Constitution. But for that he must place more faith in the report of his own Group of Ministers than vandals whose notions of justice involve destroying movie theatres when they disagree with an actor8217;s politics, or the contrived 8220;fasts8221; of a CM who claims to be fighting for Gujarati asmita but has no qualms presiding over the killing of 2,000 Gujaratis. The Congress8217;s notion that it has something to lose politically from stopping dam construction is absurd. The BJP, particularly Modi, will claim all the credit if work continues.

Despite the common saying 8220;if you don8217;t believe me, go see for yourself8221;, when a Group of Ministers finally did that, aspersions are being cast on their gaze. As if there were magical rehabilitation sites with smiling kids, piped water, post offices and beauty parlours that the ministers had simply failed to see. In fact, the GoM visited sites which the MP government claimed were 8220;model sites8221;. In Dharampuri, where 4,000 families are said to have been settled, the ministers found no one in residence. To use the argument that the sites are not thriving because people have not moved is absurd. Why would they move to a place with two dry water pumps and a heap of stones? The villages suggested by the NBA, like Nisarpur and Awalda, could not possibly have been worse. What they showed, however, was that entire villages are still unsettled. The R038;R sub-committee and the Grievance Redressal Authority GRA have never visited them. People have been forced to accept uncultivable land, several families have been given the same plot and yet all this is officially described as completed 8220;rehabilitation8221;. The 8220;special rehabilitation package8221; involving cash appears to have mainly rehabilitated the disbursing officers. The Supreme Court8217;s 8217;05 judgment states that no submergence can take place without rehabilitation, including alternative land and houses/plots, at least a year in advance. The state governments want us to believe that 8220;due process8221; was followed in deciding to raise the height of the dam. Yet, the Maharashtra government8217;s Monitoring and Evaluation Agency said on February 14 that there was 8220;enormous systemic failure as regards R038;R.8221;

The monsoons are just three months away and a callous government is delaying a decision. If non-violent methods of struggle are denigrated as 8220;emotional blackmail8221;, can the government please tell us what ordinary villagers should do to satisfactorily 8220;prove8221; they exist?

The writer is professor of sociology, Delhi School of Economics