By Matters India Reporter
Indore: The Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court on August 23 granted bail to Medha Patkar 15 days after police arrested India’s renowned social activist for trying to save drowning villages.
A lower court had earlier denied bail to Patkar, founder member of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (campaign to protect the Narmada River), an NGO active in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
She was arrested August 9 when she was on her way to Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh in central India to meet the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) oustees.
“It is a victory against the repressive Madhya Pradesh government which came down heavily on the peaceful protest against forceful eviction and illegal unjust submergence,” says a press note from the 32-year-old NGO engaged in a struggle for justice for the people affected by the dam projects related to the SSP project.
Patkar has been espousing the cause of those whose homes will be submerged in the dam water, but have not yet been rehabilitated.
Three other oustees, Vijay, Santu and Dhurji, who were jailed along with Patkar are facing serious charges of 307 and 308. Their bail hearing is schedule for August 24.
Meanwhile the chief of village Bajrikheda along with large number of villagers resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) allegedly disappointed with the state government’s alleged callousness toward Narmada oustees.
The BJP has continuously ruled the central Indian state since 2003.
Patkar is expected to be released on August 24 from Dhar jail. However she and other protestors face serious criminal charges levelled against them arbitrarily, the NBA press note says.
“This is an attempt of the government to divert the focus of the movement from legitimate demands of complete and just rehabilitation,” it adds.
It also alleged that Badwani administration has targeted key NBA activists by putting false charges on them.
The affected villagers have joined together to oppose any plot to displace them without rehabilitation. “This consciousness is shaking the local support base of BJP which is in power in the state,” the NBA says.
Thousands of people have met in their respective villages and written to the prime minister and the state chief minister demanding permanent rehabilitation and opposed temporary rehabilitation arrangements.
The police stopped Patkar and informed her that she could not proceed to Dhar, but as she refused to relent, she was placed under arrest at the border of Indore and Dhar districts, and subsequently, taken to Dhar.
Patkar was later produced before a sub-divisional judicial magistrate at Dhar who sent the 672-year-old activist to jail.
Earlier on August 7, the police forcibly removed Patkar and 11 others from Chikhalda in Dhar and admitted them in different hospitals. They activists were on an indefinite fast demanding a proper rehabilitation of the oustees.
Patkar claims the process of rehabilitation of the displaced people in the Narmada valley was yet to be completed. “At many places, even drinking water is not available. But the state government is insisting the people to go to these places. This situation is not acceptable to the oustees and therefore, they continue to stay put at their original dwellings,” she had told media persons earlier.
Patkar termed as “incorrect” Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s “claims” that different decisions of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal on the issue of rehabilitation were being followed by his government.
“The state government is just making announcements, statements and giving out figures, but is doing nothing on the issue,” she had alleged.