NBA reacts cautiously, to continue struggle

New Delhi, Apr 12 (UNI) The Narmada Bachao Andolan will continue agitation for rehabilitation of people displaced by the Sardar Sarovar dam till the Government stopped work on raising the dam's height.

NBA activists said they had not received any official word on the decision taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs asking for a review of the March 8 decision of Narmada Control Authority to raise the dam's height from 110.64 to 121.9 metres.

However, ''we will continue the agitation till the Government decides to stop work on raising the dam's height. Our struggle is not yet over'', the NBA's Deepti Bhatnagar said. Other NBA activists described the Government's move as a ''positive, first step''.

Earlier today, activists from scores of people's organisations -- many of them part of the National Alliance of People's Movement -- served a 48-hour ultimatum on the Government asking it to make public the findings of the three-member ministerial committee that toured Narmada Valley last Friday.

Members of the people's organisations had assembled here on a call from the NBA for a day-long convention on the issue of displacement and to discuss and strategise future struggles against the ''unjust forces of the State''.

In another related development, a number of organisations and individuals -- including some of those who began a relay hunger strike at the NBA's dharna site near Jantar mantar -- petitioned the National Human Rights Commission today.

While pointing out that Ms Patkar and Mr Jamsingh Nargave were being kept at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences against their wishes and claiming that NBA activists were harassed by police on April 5 night, they demanded the NHRC's intervention in the matter.

''Not only have the human rights of the detained activists been grossly violated, however, the continued construction of the Sardar Sarovar Project in violation of the Narmada Waters Disputes Tribunal award and the Supreme Court judgments constitutes a continuing saga of gross human rights violation,'' a letter signed among others by AITUC Secretary Amarjeet Kaur, Kavita Srivastava of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, et al, said.

The NBA has been on protest here since March 17, saying nearly 35,000 families would lose their source of livelihood and homes due to submergence in the dam's waters once the decision is implemented.

Ms Patkar and two villages began an indefinite hunger strike on March 29. Police forcibly shifted the NBA leader and her fasting associate Jamsingh Nargave to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences on April 5 and slapped a case of attempted suicide against them.

Union Ministers Saifuddin Soz, Meira Kumar and Prithviraj Chavan visited parts of Narmada Valley last Friday for spot inspection of the NBA's contentions on poor rehabilitation and resettlement of the dam-displaced people. They are yet to make their findings public.

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