Washed up rhetoric

Out of the total 55,800 hectares of agricultural land in these villages, about 6500 ha 12 per cent will be submerged. In 55 villages with 8000 PAFs virtually no less than 1 per cent agricultural land will be submerged. In 70 villages 9600 PAFs land submergence is 1-10 per cent. In 49 villages 12500 PAFs it is 11-50 per cent. Only in 19 villages 2900 PAFs will more than 50 per cent of the agricultural land be submerged. As per the Narmada Tribunal award, only those PAFs who lose more than 25 per cent of their land have to be given land minimum 2 ha per family, while those who lose houses or houses and very little land have to be given house plots and other civic amenities in the vicinity.

The submergence pattern and the award make it very clear that the two types of PAFs must be clearly distinguished to gauge the true nature and extent of displacement. Yet, this is what the MP government has consistently failed to do. We believe this has been deliberate, because until 2000 it was tacitly and often even openly supporting the 8220;no dam8221; movement.

In the absence of clear information, we have analysed village-wise data given by Madhya Pradesh in its Action Plan of March 1993 and estimated that about 8000-9000 PAFs in MP are required to be given land for land and the remaining 24,000 PAFs have to shift their houses to a higher plane. The MP government recently corroborated this estimate in its affidavit before the Supreme Court, where it stated that apart from those already resettled in Gujarat, only 4286 PAFs remain who have to be given land in MP 8212; 5456 PAFs, including 863 landless labourers, from MP have resettled in Gujarat. This means the number of PAFs losing more than 25 per cent land in MP is 8879.

Besides, half the remaining 24,000 PAFs are those whose houses will not be submerged, but are acquired as they might be temporarily affected by backwaters in the rare event of a big flood. This is clear from NCA reports of 1993 and 1995, quoted by the Supreme Court in its 2000 judgment. The extent of this backwater effect has also been exaggerated because the Central Water Commission, while making these calculations, did not take into consideration the moderating impact on the floods by upstream dams at Indira Sagar and other sites.

It is also not true that most of the PAFs in MP are from tribal areas. Only 53 villages with 7000 PAFs are in hilly tribal areas. The remaining 140 villages 26,000 PAFs are in Nimad, where Patidars and Rajputs are dominant. While the tribals in hilly areas are almost all poor, Nimad8217;s farmers are rich, practising modern irrigated agriculture. While most of the PAFs in hilly areas stand to lose both land and houses, in Nimad only about 4000 of the 26,000 PAFs would lose more than 25 per cent of their land. Most of the tribals from hilly areas have already resettled in Gujarat, while the farmers in Nimad who are not losing any land are opposing the project!

Now, R038;R status. The most important problem concerns the resettlement of 8879 PAFs, who have to be given land. As discussed above, 4593 families have already resettled in Gujarat and received a minimum of 2 ha of land and other benefits. In addition, 863 landless labourer families have been given land and other benefits in Gujarat. Most of them are from hilly areas.

Of the remaining 4286 PAFs, 3879 have accepted the Special Resettlement Package of an average of Rs 5.7 lakh offered by the MP government to buy irrigated land of their choice 8212; about 1000 families have already purchased land. There is an effort to make this last package controversial. But the PAFs losing land do not seem to have much objection against it. Else, they would not have accepted it in such large numbers. In any case, what is important is they get land of their choice, whether they buy it out of the amount given by the government or the government buys it and then gives it to them.

The MP government has established more than 80 sites in the vicinity of the old villages for the R038;R of those PAFs who would lose only houses. House plots and other civic amenities have either been developed or are in the process of being developed.

In the end, let us examine what could happen this monsoon as a result of the dam height being raised to 121.92 m. The much quoted figure of 23,320 PAFs of 177 villages likely to be affected in this regard does not refer to PAFs whose lands or houses would be submerged during this monsoon, but to PAFs who might be temporarily affected by backwater in case of a rare flood.

The real issue is that of those PAFs whose land or houses would actually be submerged during this monsoon. The MP government has said that 28 villages will be affected by partial submergence. Most of the PAFs from these 28 villages have already resettled in Gujarat. But there are a few pockets where, under the influence of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, some PAFs have not yet accepted the R038;R package. It is possible that the lands or houses of some of these PAFs will be submerged. It is about time that we all focussed on this real issue instead of raising imaginary scares.

The article was written with Ambrish Mehta. The writers are members of ARCH-Vahini, which works for resettlement and rehabilitation of tribals in Gujarat, Maharashtra and MP