PUNE, June 9: It has been a 35-year-long wait for the Koyna dam affected. Displaced in 1962 to make way for the mighty 98 TMC feet structure, they are still waiting for the ``proper deal'' promised to them. ``It is a battle for survival,'' says Koyna Jeevanhakka Samrakshan Sanghatana activist B J Avinash.The Koyna dam was one of the earliest projects of modern day India. Even as early as 1921, when it was first proposed, the plan had received massive opposition and had to be shelved temporarily.The struggle was resumed in the early '60s, about a year after the dam was completed. The agitators, fighting under the slogan ``Rehabilitation First, Dam Later'', even succeeded in getting an Act formulated in 1976, specifically for the rehabilitation of the dam affected.However, the 105 villagers uprooted because of the Koyna project were not to benefit from the legislation. Displaced much before the Act came into existence, most of the oustees claim to have been ``thrown out'' of their homelands with meagre cash compensations.According to Avinash, though some bought land in the locations they had been shifted to, they found it very difficult to survive in the different cultural environs, where they also faced opposition from the locals. Many families eventually gave up and returned to Koyna.But the plight of those who came back has been equally bad, says Avinash, due the area's recurring seismic activity and the classification of Koyna forest as a sanctuary. Moreover, most of the people found their land was now devoid of resources and degraded. ``Neither the dam affected nor the earthquake victims have been rehabilitated to date,'' the activist charges.The first international meeting of Dam Affected People held in Curitiba, Brazil, in March 1996 had also appealed to the Indian Government to fulfil its responsibility towards ``just rehabililtation'' of oustees in the Koyna valley.Avinash, who had participated in the meeting, had presented a paper on the misery of the Koyna dam affected at the convention. The paper was called ``Victims of Development - Displacement and the Struggles Against Dams in India: A Case of the Koyna Dam Affected People''.According to Avinash, though Maharashtra was the first state to enact a statute for the rehabilitation of people affected by projects, the oustees have generally failed to get their due owing to lack of political will and resistance from landlords. Jobs promised and lands allotted have never reached them, Avinash claims.Meanwhile, Maharashtra has lined up other medium and major irrigation reservoirs which it plans to complete within 35 months. These projects will affect 2.25 lakh more people, Avinash claims.
