Dignity for the displaced
Sudeep Chakravarti
As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) puts a spin on its troubledand troublingproposals to amend the land law by letting states do the dirty lawmaking for New Delhi, heres a tiny story about a handful of forgotten people in a neglected corner of India.
It is about the Mapithel Dam. In pretty much the geographical heart of Manipur, it will inundate land in the Ukhrul district of that strife-torn state and Senapati district. Its on the Thoubal river which flows through another, eponymous district. The rivers source is home to Naga tribes. Vibi Yhokha, a journalist and among a handful besides non-governmental organizations to record the story, writes that the Tangkhul Naga call it Yangwui Kong: the Thoubal is then the river of strength.
Dammed with a 66-metre high and more than a kilometre-long wall, its reservoir is in the process of submerging over 1,200 hectares of landabout 3,000 acres. Its a blip compared to, say, the 37,690 hectare submergence area of just one of the 30 planned dams along the Narmada. Tell that to the locals. Mapithel will submerge paddy fields in more than half its area, the rest being forest land and homesteads. Some estimates claim submergence area will reach closer to 2,000 hectares by the time the dam is done.
And affected people? About 12,000 spread across more than 50 villages and hamlets to be either entirely submerged or their livelihoods directly impacted. Statistically, its a mere 0.02% of the estimated displaced on account of projects in India since Independence. (If that lulls you to indifference, consider the cumulative number of the estimated 60 million displaced).
In any case, they care in Chadong village, one of the 11 being submerged by Mapithel. On 22 July, the Chadong Baptist Church held a final service in the premises to mark an end to its existence since 1935. The board of deacons issued a WE INVITE ONE AND ALL notice. Already most homes are under water, it declared. And with this dread, we are conducting the last prayer day
The truth of the people witnessed by this church will be drowned forever, the notice added. However, history and God will testify that the people of this village never wanted this dam; and that they wanted to save Chadong and all the villages, all living beings and all those who depended on this river system.
History will show that most people of the other villages did not either. Since the project was cleared by the Planning Commission in 1980, Mapithel has proved a symbol of all that is wrong with the process of acquiring land, from lack of consent to compensation, to thievery, to callousness over resettlement and rehabilitation. There was no free, prior and informed consent for this project marked up to public purpose. It was in violation of customary law of both Naga and Kuki people of the project-targeted area. Nearly 600 hectares in forest land clearance was not obtained by the Manipur government.
Subsequently, compensation amounts ranging from Rs.25,000 an acre (for jhum, or land used for slash-and-burn cultivation) to Rs.1,00,000 (for paddy land) was distributed in as many as seven instalments over eight years when agreements called for disbursal within two financial years. Final compensation remains a matter of dispute, and the resettlement and rehabilitation aspects remain vague and incomplete. Lives and livelihoods of thousands of people remain impaired. There was never a social impact assessment.
Meanwhile, evidently in cahoots with authorities, a splinter group of project-affected people emerged in two of the marked villages, inflated numbers of the affected, inked agreements to show acquiescence to the project, took the amount offered, and disappeared.
According to R.S. Sakathan, chair of Mapithel Dam Affected Villagers Association, local bureaucrats suppressed scrutiny of the list of families.
The intended greater-good aspects of the project are 10 million gallons a day of water for state capital Imphal and areas of Imphal
Valley; 17,500 hectares of land to be irrigated in Thoubal district and other areas of the valley;
and 7.5 MW of electricity. When these benefits flow, it will be on the backs of broken and bent laws and broken and (a few) bent people. Helplessness and resentmentnegative energywill be implicit, embedded.
And so, the least any government can do is treat the project-affected as citizens with rights, not wrong them. This may amount to giving the displaced some dignity. Even in the greater scheme of things, such things matter.
Livemint
