SC to hear NBA foreign funding case on Apr 23

New Delhi, Apr 22: The Supreme Court will hear tomorrow a petition filed by an NGO seeking a police inquiry into the alleged foreign funding of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) led by social activist Medha Patkar.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, has already issued notices to the Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh governments to respond to the allegations made in the petition.

According to the petitioner, National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), Medha Patkar and her associates, including Rahul Banerjee, against whom several criminal cases are pending, have been receiving funds from certain US and UK based companies and intimidating government officials in order to prevent them from discharging their official duties.

The petitioner has also alleged that the NBA activists are forcibly preventing ousted families from being rehabilitated and have demolished many houses built for such families.

The petitioner further submitted before the court that the allegations of foreign funding have been confirmed during a vigilance inuiry conducted by the MP police.

NBA has been consistently opposing the Sardar Sarovar dam project which according to the Gujarat government is a symbol of development and would provide drinking water to around 4000 villages in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Kutch area besides providing water for irrigation in drought prone areas of these states.

The NBA had filed a petition seeking stay against raising the height of the dam before rehabilitating the ousted families from the submergance zone. However, according to the MP government, relief and rehabilitation measures have been completed and all the affected families rahabilitated.

The Centre has also opposed the NBA's petition and is in favour of further raising the height of the dam.

UNI