High Court issues notice to M.P. Govt.
Public Interest Litigation by NBA on alleged corruption in rehabilitation The Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued notices to the State Government, Chief Secretary, Chairman of the Narmada Valley Development Authority and others in response to a public interest litigation petition by Narmada Bachao Andolan against alleged corruption in the rehabilitation process of Sardar Sarovar Project affected families in Madhya Pradesh. NBA leader Medha Patkar herself pleaded the case. The Bench consisting of Chief Justice A. K. Patnaik and Justice Prakash Shrivastava heard the plea by Ms. Patkar and issued notices to the respondents, including the State Government, Chief Secretary, Chairman NVDA, Chairman, Narmada Control Authority (NCA) (who is also Secretary to the Union Ministry of Water Resources), State Secretary, Revenue Department, Director-General of Police, Inspector-General Stamps and Registration, District Collectors of five districts --Badwani, Dhar, Jhabua, Khargone and Dewas. They have been asked to file their replies within a month. The petition filed through senior advocate N. S. Kale on October 16, 2007, was heard on March 3. The petition alleges that there was a nexus between the NVDA officials and contractors when it came to setting up the rehabilitation sites and this has resulted in preparation of "shoddy and uninhabitable' rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) sites. It goes on to point out that thousands of eligible project affected families (PAFs) have been kept out of the ambit of rehabilitation and resettlement while those not eligible have been declared as PAFs. It is the contention of NBA that the nexus between officials, middlemen and advocates has led to huge corruption and swindling of public money meant for rehabilitation. The petition says the Madhya Pradesh government policy has allowed the land and house-based rehabilitation directives of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award (NWDTA) to be twisted and this has led to corruption. The State rehabilitation policy induced fake registries, where PAFs who were given cash for buying lands actually ended up giving commission to officials and middlemen, it is alleged. By signing fake registries, they facilitated a process where crores of rupees were amassed by officials and agents as commission, depriving PAFs of basic resource security and a better living condition after resettlement. NBA has said in a statement signed jointly by NBA activists Ashish Mandloi, Clifton Rozario and Kamla Yadav that FIRs were filed against PAFs and about 35 of them were arrested. Later all of them except one were released on bail and no action was taken against the NVDA officials though notices were issued to 30 of them. Out of a total of 2,600 land registries claimed by NVDA as part of SRP, 758 are already officially accepted by the government as fake registries, after preliminary enquiry by special departmental officers, NBA has pointed out demanding a CBI probe into this matter.