annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Madhya Pradesh
committed all sorts of atrocities on the
tribals and took away 73 tribal men,
women and children with them next
morning. While 32 of them were later
traced huddled up in community centres
of Handipani and Hiravadi villages, 41 of
them were still not traceable. 46 The tribals
have been left homeless and destitute due
to the eviction. Although Betul
administration claimed that all the
displaced tribals had been rehabilitated,
Anurag Modi said it was not true. 47 One
Bakat Singh Korku, whose wife and six
children went missing, filed a habeas
corpus in the Jabalpur Bench of the
Madhya Pradesh High Court. On 9 July
2004, the High Court directed the state
government, district superintendent of
police and divisional forest officer (north
division) to produce the missing tribals
before the court on 19 July 2004. 48
On 17 July 2004, a team of 50 police,
forest & revenue personnel entered
Ghorpadmal village under Mohda police
station. They dragged tribal women out of
their houses; misbehaved with them and
later abused and terrorised the villagers. To
cover up the incident, police reportedly
registered false cases of dacoity against 13
tribals. 49
ii. Displacement due to Indira Sagar
Project
According to official sources, 34,882
families residing in 120 villages in
Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh were
displaced by the Indira Sagar Dam, as its
height has been raised to 245 meters. As
many as 97 villages in Harsud were
evacuated by 6 July 2004, 50 and as many as
29,403 families were reportedly
rehabilitated as on 7 July 2004. A sum of
Rs 888.25 crore was reportedly distributed
to the affected families in the form of
compensation for their immovable
properties and different grants. 51 The
government provided ‘temporary shelters’
in the form of tin-sheds to the oustees in a
50-hectare rehabilitation site in Chanera,
about 17 kms from Harsud.
But the rehabilitation site did not
have even the basic facilities. There was
no power and water supply, and the
oustees were supposed to build their own
houses. Absence of adequate facilities at
the rehabilitation site forced many of the
displaced families to shift to other nearby
towns, where landowners charged
exorbitant rents from them. 52 The
Narmada Bachao Andolan alleged that
the Narmada Hydroelectric Development
Corporation extensively used bulldozers
and police force to vacate the villages.
Although the people living in these
villages should have been fully
rehabilitated by 31 December 2003, even
resettlement sites were not built for 27 of
these 32 villages. Compensation was
distributed a few weeks before the
submergence deadline of 30 of June
2004. Many villagers also did not get
compensation. 53
iii. Displacement due to Sardar Sarovar
Project
Amongst the 30 large dams planned
139