Adivasi communities in Maharashtra on dharna to protest displacement. A note from Pratibha Shinde.

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We are holding a “Chetavani Dharna” on 30 June, 08, at Nandurbar Collectorate for the justiciable rehabilitation of displaced of dehli river project, Ambabari, dist. Nandurbar, Maharstra and oustees of Sardar sarovar project.

Approximately, thousands of villagers affected from Dehli river project are now on the verge of displacement and 700 hectare cultivated land is expected to be submerged, while state government of Maharastra is abdicating form its promised responsibility providing them proper rehabilitation according to their demands. Displaced tribal of Sardar Sarovar Project are also waiting for fulfilling the pending promises.  

As you are aware friends, Ambabari village has been haunted by the specter of displacement for the past thirty years and villagers are fighting against it. Ambabari is situated at foothills of the Satpuras and facing the lack of basic facilities, too. A medium-height dam has been planned to come up on Dehli River that flows from the Satpuda hills to Ambabri. Thirty years back, this adivasi village, almost completely illiterate, was served with individual displacement notices. Since then, all vital amenities like electricity, school, and road have been withdrawn from this village by the government and its justification is why waste resources in a village that will soon be drowned anyway!

Due to the absence of any concrete rehabilitation plan, Ambabari’s adivasis’ very survival has been at stake for over three decades now on account of the absence of any alternative land for homes and farms for alternative livelihood. So they all got united by forming a sanghatana, stopped the construction of the dam, and have been resisting this inhuman project for long. Their demand is “land for land” compensation and their argument “first rehabilitation, later dam”. Ambabari’s struggle under the banner of Lok Sangharsh Morcha continues till today.

The government has failed to come up with anything concrete in all these years despite repeated assurances from time to time. The government has presently resumed construction work on the incomplete dam.

Hence the Adivasis of Ambabari village will issue a warning to the government by holding a “Chetavani dharna” on June 30, 2008, fallowed by Satyagrah latter on.

This is an invitation for you to join this struggle.

You can help by:

·        Joining the dharna on June 30, 2008

·        Writing to Maharasthra’s Chief Minister, Governor, Rehabilitation Minister and the District Collector, Nandurbar, and raise the issue of this displacement.

Fax No. of District collector is; 02564-210041,

Fax No. of Rehabilitation Minister is; 022-22821499,

Fax No. of Commissioner Nasik is; 0253-2461063