Title: Subergence without rehabilitation: Brief report on Indira Sagar Project
Author: abc
Last saved by: Shekhar Singh
Company: IIPA

Submergence Without Rehabilitation:
Brief report on Indira Sagar Project

In recent months, considerable media attention has been drawn to the harsh and callous uprootment of the residents of Harsud town, in preparation for its submergence in the Indira Sagar Pariyojana multipurpose project. What has passed relatively unnoticed is that away from the media glare, around half the 249 villages slated for submergence have been forcefully vacated over the past two years and are under water, their residents scattered in undeveloped resettlement colonies, forests and slums. 

There is a larger debate that the country must engage. Significant research on big dams, including the World Commission on Dams report, show that big dams indeed yield more costs than benefits. These costs are unconscionably high and disproportionately inflicted upon marginalised peoples and cultures. In Indira Sagar alone, a total of 30,739 families are officially scheduled to be displaced, along with 41,111 hectares of forests, in a total submergence of 91,348 hectares. The actual displacement is already much larger, because displacement statistics tend to invisibilise those without property. The project is expected to yield 1000 MW of electricity and irrigate 1,23,000 hectares of land, a third of which is already irrigated. Water logging will impact 40 percent of Indira Sagar and Omkareswar. This year, only 500 million units of electricity, from the total of 30,000 required by Madhya Pradesh, have been generated.

The current reality is that the construction of the Indira Sagar Project is highly advanced, as is the displacement. The lessons of this experience must inform new and proposed projects. Beyond the enormous human distress that any forced displacement causes, our visit to the Narmada Valley confirms that local project, state and central authorities have caused a great deal of avoidable human distress. This is primarily the result of their failures to adhere even to the letter, let alone the spirit, of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award, the Madhya Pradesh Government Rehabilitation Policy, or internationally accepted norms and standards for involuntarily displaced people. 

A detailed field report is being prepared, and will be presented both to the Prime Ministers’ Office and the National Advisory Council. Through our inquiry, including a visit to Harsud and neighbouring villages, we convened public hearings attended by hundreds of people, and witnessed the devastating extent of forcible displacement during the monsoons, and the dismal absence of adequate resettlement, rehabilitation and livelihood opportunities. Given the gravity and enormity of human suffering, we urge that the following steps be undertaken immediately: 

(i)	We have found that the principle of providing land for land for all project affected people provided for both in the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award and the Madhya Pradesh Government Rehabilitation Policy has been widely violated. Most people are not aware of this provision, and those who are, have still been denied it. It is proposed that further displacement in the remaining villages be stopped forthwith, until all project affected persons are given the opportunity to actualize this provision. 
(ii)	85 villages have been partially and fully submerged between 2002-2003, and 32 scheduled for submergence in 2004. Our second major finding is that people are being forcibly resettled in colonies without even minimal facilities of clean drinking water, electricity, sewerage, drainage, primary education and health care. This contravenes humanitarian principles, and the explicit injunctions of the Supreme Court that the rehabilitation site must be made ready in all respects at least six months before displacement begins. This must be strictly adhered to in future, transparently organised and supervised, and must impact decision making in the present.
(iii)	In all existing resettlements colonies, the state government must ensure adequate facilities of clean drinking water, electricity, sewerage, drainage and primary education and health care. 
(iv)	In all resettlement sites, we found that there was no livelihood planning. No further displacement should be permitted until genuine opportunities for alternative employment are ensured for all the project affected. The only realistic way this may occur in an agrarian economy is by implementing the ‘land for land’ policy. As necessary, the government must acquire cultivable private land in the command area. 
(v)	In the short run, an employment guarantee programme should be undertaken in all resettlement villages to endure for a minimum of three years.
(vi)	We have found that the compensation rates have been pegged at levels that do not enable people to purchase alternative agricultural land.  This is further hampered because compensation is paid in installments (for which there is no legal basis).  Compensation should match current market rates, and should be paid in a single installment. Injustice and corruption, in both the calculation and distribution of compensation, must be addressed.
(vii)	Project affected persons who do not own homes and landless persons must not be excluded from rehabilitated. We found that the single women, widows, the disabled are being excluded from rehabilitation processes, and must be fully included. Women must be listed as co-title holders to new land. Submerged land owned by the government must be assessed for the livelihood resources that these lands provided the disenfranchised, and the affected be compensated for such losses. 
(viii)	That the vast displacement is being undertaken during the monsoon rains, further multiplies human suffering. All displacement in the rainy season should the stopped forthwith and people should be relocated only after the monsoons are over.
(ix)	The 132 villages yet to be submerged must be rehabilitated prior to the completion of the dam, even if it requires halting construction. The linkages between dam construction, resettlement and rehabilitation must be understood. Construction of 4 of the 20 gates has been completed. Construction of the remaining 16 will result in the flooding of 132 villages, and must follow only after rehabilitation is completed.
(x)	Public and government monitoring mechanisms must be instated to ensure that resettlement and rehabilitation processes are undertaken in ways that are transparent, principled, and in accordance with the law.
(xi)	Police brutality, which is prevalent, must be acknowledged and stopped. Persecution of such acts must occur through the judicial process.

(N. C. Saxena)		(Angana Chatterji)		(Harsh Mander)