Author: Navin Upadhyay
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: April 29, 2006
Battered officials, labourers register their
plight against NBA's bully boys and girls----- For an organisation that claims
to spearhead a peaceful movement to help rehabilitate persons displaced by
the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) on the Narmada river, the track record of
the NBA is far from flattering.
In addition to a Gujarat High Court directive
to the Centre seeking a ban on the NBA for running 'anti-national' activities
to roadblock SSP, the Medha Patkar-led outfit is facing more than 200 criminal
cases in Madhya Pradesh.
Police records reveal that in eight years,
228 FIRs were filed against the NBA activists for indulging in violent activities
and terror tactics to stop the SSP construction.
The obstructive activities of the NBA are
also part of the affidavit filed by the Madhya Pradesh Government in the Supreme
Court, MP's vigilance department records and Devas police investigations.
State Government officials lodged 52 FIRs alleging assault and obstruction
at work by NBA activists.
The latest FIR lodged against NBA activists
was on April 19, after the visit of the Central team led by Water Resources
Minister Saifuddin Soz.
According to the FIR lodged at Dharampur under
Dhar district, nearly two dozen activists invaded a rehabilitation centre,
manhandled senior Government officials and pelted stones on the labourers.
Ten days before this incident, another FIR
was filed against the activists on April 6 at Nisarpur in Dhar district in
connection with the beating up of three senior Government officials who visited
Bajrikheda village for survey work. NBA activists also shred their clothes.
Even as NBA leaders are beating their chests
over the plight of the oustees, the FIRs shows that they made determined attempt
to scuttle the rehabilitation exercise. In many cases, officials and workers
of the rehabilitation centres were beaten, abused and terrorised. In other
cases, Government officials were assaulted for supervising the SSP work and
contractors met a similar fate.
Now, the National Council for Civil Liberties
(NCCL), on the basis of whose petition the Gujarat HC had asked the Centre
to ban the NBA, has approached Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to look into
the grave charges of "criminal and seditious activities by the NBA."
In a letter to the Prime Minister on April
23, NCCL president VK Saxena has said that the NCCL fears that NBA is funded
and supported by foreign institution to thwart the development in the Country.
Giving detail of the NBA activities, the NCCL
has said that while Medha Patkar claims that her Andolan is non-violent, "
the grassroot NBA is not only involved in violent activities but is also involved
in gross human rights violation in Narmada Valley".
The NCCL letter further points out that though
"Ms Patkar has claimed that the Govt. of Madhya Pradesh has failed to
provide adequate rehabilitation package to the Project Affected People (PAPs),
however we have proved that it is NBA, which is coming in the way of rehabilitation.
Government officials engaged in the work of rehabilitation are mercilessly
being beaten up by the activists and are prevented from conducting surveys
of PAPs. NBA activists have banned entry of Govt. officials in several villages."
The letter also talks of the foreign funding
of the NBA, a charge that also figured in Madhya Pradesh vigilance department
and police reports.
The NCCL has also enclosed the Gujarat High
Court order asking the Centre to consider ban on NBA under Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act 1967.
Citing police and vigilance reports, the NCCL
letter says that "documents established beyond doubt that NBA is merely
a mask and the number of support groups working under its umbrella and foreign
funds are channelised through these fictitious organisations to thwart the
development in the country."
