Polavaram

Polavaram issue at bAiThak kHanA
Posted by: "sudarsan das" in E-group Agamiorissa
Sat Sep 11, 2010 11:14 pm (PDT)

Dear All
As planned, the bAiThaK kHanA of Agami Odisha organised the consultation on Polavaram on 11th September at Ekamra Hatt.

Consultation had about thirty five participants comprising NGOs, media, activists, and elected representatives. Shri Sudarsan Das explained the weekly dialogue series that Agami Odisha has been organising on varied issues of concern to the state to examine the alternatives and and chalk out ways and mean of building public opinion in favour policies and programmes in the interest of the state. Polavaram issue has been taken up for this week, he explained as the problem is becoming serious with growing pressures to accord national status to the dam.

He introduced guest speaker Shri M Bharath Bhushan of Aranyika, a inter-state network of NGOs on environment and tribal development, and his work related to Polavaram dam as an activist with field studies on the impact of the dam way back in 1992 and his contribution to Aranyika's publication titled “Myth and Reality of
Polavaram Dam' highlighting the truth of the benefits and underestimated losses, as well his documentaries films on the Koyas tribe and Polavaram dam.

Bharath Bhushan explained that the Polavaram dam has evoked public wrath from the
beginning, especially from late Eighties when various sanghatans in the state of Andhra Pradesh and environment groups in the country have also questioned the rationale. There was a regional meet of the Koya tribal village heads of the three states in March 1995 that made fervent appeal to the chief ministers of the three states to withdraw Polavaram dam. Resistance to Polavaram dam, he said, is not new. The Polavaram Dam is national disaster as the promised benefits are only on paper and highly exaggerated, while the losses which are irreversible due to ecological destruction and displacement of people in large scale are many times higher than what is being told to the clearance authorities. The benefits are shaky, for instance, the irrigation benefits are claimed to be initially 7.21 lakh acres as
per the Environment Impact Assessment and Environment Management Plan (EIA & EMP) prepared by Agricultural Finance Corporation Ltd in September 2005 that was submitted to the authorities for obtaining clearance, Now there are claims of 23.21 lakh acres how that is possible and if the revised irrigation benefits are true how approval given to different design is valid, he asked. While the truth is that
Polavaram dam would be irrigate additionally only 42,000 acres as after deducting the extent of land that is lost forever under submergence and canals and 5.47 lakh acres which is already under irrigation or in progress under Tatipudi, Pushakara and several other irrigation projects. Similarly the Central Electricity Authority has
declared that power generation claims of 960 MW is unrealistic as there is feasibility for only 460 MW. Other serious issues of concern are the displacement of around 3 lakh population. Displacement and ecological implications are not confined to state borders as the Dantewada disturbance has resulted in about 30,000 people moving to AP according to the National Commission for Protection for Child
Rights in November 2007. Whether there is submergence or embankment in Orissa and Chattisgarh the large scale displacement of adivasis in AP and the uphill migration of the adivasis would be national disaster.

Prof K B Das of Utkal University remarked that all mega projects are only adding to the loot of resources for the private gains and the proposed benefits of the projects are not real or only short term. He cited examples of the Hirakud, Indravati dams and added that the displaced people are yet to be rehabilitated in many cases. He wondered how the Polavaram dam would be different when it is of much larger scale and being designed without public consent. Other participants who spoke on the occasion include Mr Braja Kishore Tripathy, former Union Minister, Mr
Lalit Mohan Patnaik, Mr Akshya Das, Mr Tushar Kanta, Mr Deba Parija, Priyadarshi Mishra, Mr Dayanidhi Sahu etc.

Participants remarked that presentations by the speakers and the discussion has brought to light several dimensions of the dam and the rapid modifications in the scope and design that are not widely known to the people in any state. The whole issue is treated as a matter of concern to technical experts and those in power to be act indiscriminately while the adverse implications of the ill designed project are to be faced by the adivasis and the people. Secrecy and myths of the technical
things are only coming into light in bits and pieces when one committee after the other finds lacunae in some component or the other. The participants opined that the project should be stalled immediately to have a national debate on the project in its totality and public debate is needed whether the dam serves any purpose at
all, whether its social ecological costs are worth the project, whether the corrective measures in the form of R&R and Environment Management Plan are sound etc

Issues that emerged for reflection include the following:

Polavaram issue is a national tragedy with significant direct implications to the state and the response from Odisha has to be above party affiliations

There is urgent need to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the social, ecological, and related problems due to the Polavaram dam

Public awareness and mobilisation has to be strengthened to inform the affected people and the varied sections in the state about the true picture of the
Polavaram dam

A state level convention has to be organised at the earliest to build public
awareness on the issue. The convention should invite speakers comprising experts and activists from three states and other parts of the country

--------------------------------------------

Sudarsan Das

Managing Trustee & Secretary

Human Development Foundation (HDF)

M-4, Samant Vihar, Mancheswar Rly. Colony

Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar.

Email: sudarsan_d@yahoo.com