A Case study under Civil Society and Governance Project, India

Displacement in Subernrekha Multi-purpose Project

and Civil Society Organisation’s Intervention

Final (revised) ReportApril, 2000

Main ResearcherManthan

Academic AssistanceKaushik Ghosh

Field Work AssistanceRavi Kumar

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Contents

PageAcknowledgement 1

Introduction 2

Report

1. Background 7

2. Main problems of governance and the issues of intervention by 16Civil Society Organisations [CSOs]

3. Strategy and dynamics of Civil Society Actors 31

4. Socio- Political enviroment 42

5. Factors behind different directions of Icha & Chandil 46and evaluation of VMV’s approach to the movement

6. Some important aspects, Conclusions and suggestions 52

Appendices to the report

1. Notable quotations from interviews 5812. Basic questionnaire for interviews 60

3. List of interviews 63

References 66

Annexures

1. Salient features of dams under SMP 67

2. Salient features of barrage under SMP 68

3. Salient features of canal system of SMP 69

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4. Component-wise land requirements of SMP 70

5. Data on submergence and displacement 71

6. Phase-wise submergence 72

7. Population and ethnicity 72

8. Percentage of total population 73

9. Minerals of Singhbhum – occurrence and usage 74

10. Socio-economic situation of 14 villages 75(According to a study by XISS, Ranchi)

11. Submergence of villages 75

12. Basic infrastructure at the resettlement sites 76 (According to SMP’s RR Plan)

13. Economic rehabilitation 77

14. Development of rehabilitation sites : Chandil sector 78

15. Employment of displaced persons in project jobs 79

16. Resttlement measures as on 31.1.1994 80 (In chandil area)

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Acknowledgement

At the outset I express my gratitude to my friends of Lok Jagriti Kendra who trusting in my competence suggested my name to PRIA for this study.

I thank PRIA for selecting me for this study to be conducted under a Civil Society & Governance Study Project. This study has given me intellectual and financial satisfaction. Usually, the studies related with projects, displacement and rehabilitation have only been mainly focussing on the insensitivity of the government and the miserable condition of the people affected by the project. Priority was not given to the dimensions of intervention by citizens, issues and strategies and to their effectiveness and limitations. Thus the frustration with the horrifying present has been consciously or unconsciously overpowering the struggles fought for the aspirations of a better future. I have seen this study as an attempt to go beyond this tradition. This study has provided me with an opportunity to understand the people struggling against the Subarnarekha Multi-purpose Project and their commitments in their original and positive form. I am thankful to the entire team of the PRIA associated with this project for I advanced in intellectual discipline with the help of their efforts.

I have received the necessary assistance from the leadership that has been struggling in the two areas of the Project for which I thank all of them.

I thank Mr. Sitaram Shastry for he has translated my writings into English from Hindi.

Kaushik Ghosh and Ravi Kumar have been an integral part of the study team. They share the positive and negative aspects of this study with me and also the responsibility. The least I can say about them is that this study would not have been possible without their association with it.

ManthanA4/85, A - Road

Telco Colony, Jamshedpur-831004East Singhbhum

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Introduction

Context : This is a study on the issue of displacement in Subarnarekha Multi-purpose Project

(SMP). Here it is necessary to say that two big dams are being constructed in SMP and different organisation directed/are directing the movements in these two areas. These are the Chandil dam area and the Icha dam area. Most of the construction work of Chandil dam is over. Many villages are submerged in the dam waters, still more during the rainy season. Icha dam has not been constructed and there has not been displacement there due to waterlogging. There has been movement for proper rehabilitation of the displaced in the Chandil area, and no-dam movement in the Icha area.

This study, which has been conducted on displacement by Subarnarekha Multi-Purpose Project and interventions by civil society organizations in that regard, is part of an international study.

This study is a purposeful attempt to understand the relations between the civil society and the governance, and the inner strength of the civil society as a whole, so as to give a better direction to the factors and forms of governance.

Following are certain pre-determined objectives of this study for India:

1. To gain clearer understanding of the processes and institutions of civil society engaged in promoting good governance in India.

2. To focus attention and debate on those aspects of civil society which can enhance the quality of governance and democracy, and

3. To strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations to further enhance their impact on improving governance and democratic functioning in India.

Objectives of the case study on displacement by SMP

Keeping the above objective in view it has been targeted to know the following in this particular study:

1. Response of the civil society directly affected by the project, towards the project and its effects.

2. What type of intervention did the civil society organisation make?3. What attitude did the governance adopt towards the intervention by the civil

society organisation?4. Which issues and dimensions of governance did emerge in the total process

of the intervention by the civil society and what was the attitude of the government towards that?

5. What changes did come in the situation, policies and relations with the interaction between the civil society and the government, and what were the shortcomings?

6. Which of the factors were considered essential at the level of policies, procedures, activities of the civil society and organisations to bring about better governance and advanced democratic system?

Methodology

Mainly three methods were adopted in this study:

1. Method of interview2. Method of observation3. Data collection through secondary sources

i. Interview : Interviews can be classified into four categories :

i. Single person interviews based on open-ended questionnaireii. Group interviews based on open-ended questionnaireiii. Individual interviews conducted on questions that emerged during the course

of conversation.iv. Group interviews conducted on questions that emerged during the course of

conversation.

Interviews were conducted basing on the pre-determined and open-ended questionnaire with the people in the Chandil dam area. Method of conversation was adopted with the people of Icha dam area on the basis of questions arising spontaneously during conversation. There is a specific reason for this differentiation. Today rehabilitation movement is going on in Chandil area based on certain issues and demands. Icha area’s movement is based on the central issue of stopping the construction of dam and so it was necessary to understand the course of the evolution of the movement. In Chandil dam area, interviews were conducted with the general villagers/displaced persons also whereas only leaders and activists were interviewed in the Icha dam area.

The difference between the interviews taken in the Chandil and Icha dam areas is not unintentional or coincidental. There is a methodical approach behind it. Here it needs to be mentioned that it was stated in the first proposal of my study that the study was being conducted primarily in the Chandil dam area while an additional study of the Icha area also was being done in order to understand the total picture of the different dimensions of the intervention by the CSOs keeping the different situations in view. With this very approach, less number of interviews were proposed in Icha dam area in the initial plan of the study.

Not only with respect to the persons selected for interviews but also differentiation was made with respect to the questions and method of conversation also during the interviews. Interviews were conducted in the Chandil area with an open-ended questionnaire on the basis of certain pre-planned points of study. But there was no such pre-planned written method in Icha. A totally open conversation was held to gather maximum information about the movement there while raising some questions in-between on left-out issues and points.

Basic reason of this difference lies in the activeness of the people in the two areas on the different issues of the Project. Presently, there is no activity in the Icha area on the issue of displacement. After the World Bank decided to suspend granting of loan for the second phase of the Project, the organisations active in the Icha area brought out a victory procession and stopped the movement. Since then, there has not been any activity centered on the Project. There was also no need for any such activities as neither the Project is doing any project-related work in that area nor the people of the area are facing any problem that could have been caused by the Project. The object of the study was to

understand the history of the movement and it was enough to discuss with the leadership and the activists for that. It was not essential to converse with the general villagers. It had been more than this six years since the movement was suspended and it was not likely for the common people to speak about the happenings with accuracy. Yet, had there been time available, certain representatives of the villagers could have been talked to.

On the other hand, in difference with the Icha area, even today project work is going on in Chandil area and the displaced are suffering from the problems caused by the Project. Rehabilitation has not been completed and the common displaced people are engaged in their endeavours and struggles for rehabilitation and compensation. It has already been told that after the World Bank suspended giving loan to the Project NABARD and Bihar Government have given money to the Project and work has been now restarted for the construction of radial gate. Due to this situation, it was necessary to hold direct talks with the common displaced persons in order to understand the different dimensions of the movement.

ii. Observation: As decided at the outset, method of observation also has been adopted in this study. After interviewing the villagers, the interviewers stayed overnight in the village and held informal talks with the people, listened to the discussions among the people and observed the life-style of the people. In some villages, where interviews were not conducted, general conversation was held with people. This method was adopted particularly in the Chandil dam area.

In fact, this observation was participatory. I (main researcher) was in touch with the villagers in the villages of the Chandil area during the eighties. Time to time I participated in the programmes of movements as an activist. The co-researcher was associated with the movement in the leading role till a few years ago. The main researcher is acquainted with the leading persons of the Icha area also.

2. Data collection through secondary sources

References have also been taken from secondary sources for gathering information of the details of the project and the movement. These sources include documents of the Project, research papers on the movement, books & booklets, reports on the movements, leaflets and press clippings on the issue. Information has also been collected from government’s documents. (Vide Bibliography)

Main points of the Questionnaire

Pre-determined open-ended questionnaire is given in the Annexure. So it is enough to mention the main points of the questionnaire here. Mainly the following points were discussed with the people:

i. What do the displaced know about the Project? ii. Transparency of the Projectiii. Elements of accountability of the Projectiv. Intervention in the direction of public policy by civil society

organisationsv. Project and the movement seen on the criteria of

autonomy/decentralisation/ participationvi. Leadership and initiative among the displacedvii. Forms of collectivism and mutual help, and their impact on the

project.viii. Role of the Project and the civil society organisations with regard to

natural resources.

ix. Government’s attitude towards civil rights. x. State of civic amenities.xi. Mutual relationship among the organisationsxii. Role of the administration, the judiciary and people’s representatives.xiii. Forms of corruption and Intervention by civil society organisations.xiv. Evaluation of the Project by the displaced.xv. Opinion of the displaced about World Bank.

Work done under the Study

Details of the interviews conducted under this study are as follows:

Total Chandil Icha

i. Total Number of interviews 51 43 8ii. Total number of participants in the

Interviews 82 71 11iii. No. of Villages,Rehabilitation

colonies and other residential areas included in the Interviews 39 33 6

iv. Original villages (in the area ofSubmergence) included in the interviews 27 21 6

v. Rehabilitation colonies included inInterviews 4 4 0

vi. Villages, other than Rehabilitation Colonies, where the displaced settled with their own planning 8 8 0

vii. Individual interviews 36 29 7 viii. Group interviews 15 14 1

Difficulties faced during the course of the study and the shortcomings of the study:

· There was no initial difficulty in conducting interviews due to earlier acquaintance with the villagers and the leadership of the agitation. Because of the earlier acquaintance only, there was no attempt to twist or alter the facts for any expectations or apprehensions. It was relatively easier to comprehend the broken links in the information and to get replies for the subsequent questions. Yet, a different type of difficulty was faced. While interviewing, the respondents sometimes questioned -`You know everything, why are you again asking?’ Many times they used to start relating their problems and expect solutions from the interviewer.

· Despite favourable situation, most of the respondents could not correctly tell the timing (date, month, year) of the programmes and events.

· Due to rains, inaccessibility to the villages in the area of submergence and lack of means of communication for 10 to 15 days preceding the Lok Sabha elections, progress of the study was considerably affected. Because of this, desired number of interviews could not be conducted.

· The biggest shortcoming in this study is that negligible number of women was interviewed for several reasons. General women were not prepared to talk. Women who were in the leadership left the area due to marriage, employment etc.

Issues related with women came up very less during the movement. So women-related issues did not find place in this study. They might come up if a separate study on the subject is conducted.

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Background

As it is obvious from the name itself, this study is an attempt to analyse an intervention against displacement by a society affected by Subarnarekha Multi-purpose Project (SMP).

Two different streams of movements took place in the areas of submergence of the two different dams of SMP under construction. In the Icha dam area, civil society remained concentrated on the single central issue of “No dam” from the beginning to the end. In Chandil dam area, people emphatically acted against the dam in its initial phase. After repression by the government, there was a long period of inaction. Later, people of this area started struggling in organised manner on the issue of rehabilitation. Both the movements have made definite achievements. Today the level of aspiration and power is higher in both the areas to intervene in the issues of governance compared to earlier times.

Presently World Bank’s loan for SMP, under construction with financial aid from World Bank, remains suspended for the last 10 years after the first phase of construction. Most of the construction of the Chandil dam is complete. Only the work of installing radial gate remains. After a little construction, work stopped on Icha dam. Any construction that obstructs the flow of the river has not been made. Work on barrages and canals also has been done only partially. This year loans of Rs 116 crores and Rs 26 crores have been received from NABARD and Bihar government respectively for the installation of radial gate in Chandil dam and digging of canal associated with Chandil dam. Even today the displaced people of the Chandil area are active on the issue of stopping further construction of the dam before complete rehabilitation. There has not been any construction work of the Project in Icha dam area.

To understand the movement launched and led by the civil society organisations against SMP in both the dam areas, its issues, continuity of the movement, its achievements and its limitations, i.e. the birth, evolution, consequences and the potential of the movement, one has to understand the background and perspective of the movement in which the movement started. This background has many aspects.

The frame of SMP – a calamity for the lives of more than hundred villages

Subarnarekha Multi-purpose Project is a project involving two dams, two barrages and seven canals on the river Subarnarekha and its tributary Kharkai. The objectives of the Project are irrigation, water supply to civilians and industries, flood control and generation of electricity (announcements about generation of electricity have been repeatedly changed). It has been claimed that the Project will benefit Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal.

Subarnarekha and Kharkai are inter-state rivers and so the concerned states have claims on the waters of these rivers. These claims precipitated into a formal decision in 1964. The technical Committee of Eastern Zonal Council decided to give 32 lakh acres foot of water to Bihar, 1 lakh acre foot of water to Bengal and 12 lakh acre foot to Orissa. It was discussed as to how this distribution would be made possible. Those days, there was a minor flood and withplan started being made to construct a big dam on the river to stop the minor flood that occurs occasionally. Two places, Kuju and Chandil, were suggested for the construction of the dams on Kharkai and Subarnarekha respectively. Bihar government in 1973 prepared a detailed report of these dams. Then survey was undertaken. Meetings started being held for an agreement among the governments of Bihar, Orissa and Bengal. Government sanctioned Rs 129 crores for this Project in 1977. Finally, an agreement was arrived at on all aspects of the Project among the three state governments. (Source : Jab Nadi Bandhi).

Under this Project, a 55 meter high dam near Chandil, a 38 meter high dam near Chaibasa, a 436 meter long barrage on Subarnarekha near Galudih, and a 528 meter long barrage on Kharkai near Ganjia are to be constructed. Capacity of Chandil dam will be 16 lakh acre foot and that of Icha (Kuju) dam will be 6.8 lakh acre foot.

The Chandil dam is to involve 17,028 hectares of land, Icha dam is to involve 13,000 hectares (8585 in Bihar). 116 villages are to be submerged in the Chandil dam (32 fully and 84 partially). 66 villages come under submergence in Icha dam (25 fully, 41 partially). With these two dams 9700 families (probably according to the1981 census) of 180 villages will be displaced. [This is based on the concept of joint families while on the basis of nucleus families, 25 thousand families will be displaced in today’s position.]

[The promise of prosperity: SMP]

Target of directly benefiting 1,65,000 families of Bihar, Bengal and Orissa and irrigating 2,55,000 hectares of land was announced by the Project. But this Project had thrown the organised lives, employment and culture of thousands of families of 180 villages of six blocks in crisis. The Project had also chalked out a plan for the solution of this crisis but that plan neither included the question of permanent resources of livelihood nor any guarantee to rehabilitate the earlier collective and community life of the people and the cultural milieu.

Socio- cultural composition of the project area

Geographical position and communal composition of the villages to be submerged in the two dam areas of the Project are different from each other. The Chandil dam will submerge 116 villages of three blocks –Chandil, Ichagarh and Nimdih. Icha dam will submerge 66 villages of Rajnagar, Chaibasa and Tantnagar blocks. The area affected by Chandil dam had been known as Patkum region in the olden days. The Rajnagar block area of the Icha dam area has been known as Rajbadi. Chaibasa Sadar and Tantnagar blocks come under the eastern part of the Kolhan area.

Most of the areas of Chandil dam area are multi-communal. Tribal predominant villages are relatively less in this region and so naturally the ratio of tribal population is less in the total population of the area. Tribal population is 47.68% in Chandil block, 30.84% in Ichagarh block and 35.57% in Nimdih block. This also should be noted that least number of villages of the Chandil block will be submerged by Chandil dam and the strip of dense tribal population of Nimdih block is outside the area of submergence.

Kolhan area is a tribal majority area. To be more specific, this is the area of ‘Ho’ tribe. The Ho community is socially predominant in the communal composition of the area. Tribal population is predominant in the two blocks coming under the Icha dam area. Tribals are 84.21% in the rural population of the Chaibasa block and 78.29% in the Tantnagar block. Relatively, there is less tribal population in Rajnagar compared to the Kolhan area. Tribal population in Rajnagar block is composed of different tribes viz. Santhal, Ho, Bhumij etc. [Population figures – District Census Handbook, Census of India, 1981].

Mention of this social composition is significant. This is a sociological truth that there is more collectivism and communal solidarity in the tribal community compared to other communities. This also is true that normally non-tribal communities have an overbearing role in inter-communal relations in the villages of mixed population. In the areas of Rajbadi and Patkum also, influence of certain section of non-tribal communities is more in the politico-economic activities. One reason for this is that the tribal communities are relatively more self-centered and non-tribal communities are relatively more associated with the outside world of market and offices. In multi-community villages, life is scattered at the level of different communities in many matters. So collectivism is relatively less strong and

less intense in such villages. How much any initiative/intervention by civil society is effective is directly dependent on the form of collectivism.

A glance on the social, cultural aspects of the population in both the dam areas of SMP can be useful to understand the different dimensions and dynamism of the civil society organisations.

Density of population : density of population in the villages of Icha area is much less than than that of the Chandil area. Density of population in the six blocks coming under the catchment area (three blocks of each area) is 226 per KM. Density of population in the command area of the Project is 205 persons per KM. Density of the villages coming under the area of submergence in Chandil area is 214 persons per KM and that of Icha area is 168 persons per Km. (Sources: Environmental Impact Assessment of SMP, Bihar, 1993)

Gender ratio of the population: Gender ratio also is different in the areas. According to the above said sources itself, this ratio is 100:95 (male: female) in Chandil area and 100:107 in the Icha area.

Tribal and Dalit population: According to the above said source, tribal population is 50.3 % of the total population in the six blocks of the catchment area. It is 29.6% in the command area. Tribal population is 29.6 in the villages of Chandil dam area and 72.3% in the Icha dam area. That means percentage of tribal population in Chandil area is less than one-third of its total population whereas three-fourth of the population of the Icha dam area is tribal. Relatively, tribal population is less in the Rajnagar block part and more in the Kolhan part of the Icha dam area, i.e. in the Chaibasa Sadar and Tantnagar blocks. On this basis, tribal people coming under the area of submergence in Kolhan area are more than 80%. Almost all the tribal population of this area belongs to a single tribe ‘Ho’. People of both the tribes, Ho and Santhal live in the Rajnagar part of the area. The tribal population of the Chandil area mainly consists the Santhal and Bhumij tribes. There are also small numbers of the Mahali and Lohara tribes in the area.

The Dalit (Harijans i.e. scheduled castes) population in the Icha area is less than the Dalit population of the Chandil area. Dalit population is 5.1% in the six blocks of the total catchment area. It is 4.3 in the command area. Dalit population is 6.5 % in the Chandil area and 3.3 %in the Icha area.

Non-tribal population : Major non-tribal community in the villages of Chaibasa and Tantnagar blocks of the Icha area is ‘Gope’. The other non-tribals belong to artisan castes like Lohar, Kumhar etc. in small numbers in the area. Number of caste Hindus is insignificant in the area. Situation is different in the Rajanagar block part of the Icha area. People of castes like Rajput, Brahman and Sao also live in the area. They are socialy and economically strong in many villages of the block.

In Chandil area, apart from the castes like Rajak, Ghasi, Tanti and Bhuia(Layak), backward castes like Kurmi(Mahato), Gope, Mandal, Gorai, Sao, Karmakar(Lohar), Pramanik, Kumhar, Poddar etc. also live. There are also upper caste people like Brahmans, Rajputs, Das etc. in the area. There is also Muslim population but it is less in the area of submergence than in the neighborhood villages. Though the ratio of upper caste people like Brahman, Rajput, Das etc is much less, they are socially and politically quite influential. There are quite a good number of Mukhias belonging to these castes in the area. There has been a tradition in the area to appoint Brahmans as mediators for settling disputes and so they exert political influence in the area.

The non-tribal communities in the Chandil area are essentially local people. They are not such outsiders who, coming from outside during the last 50-100 years, dispossessed the tribals of their lands. They can be identified as Sadans i.e. the local non-tribal castes.

Culture of the communities and inter-community relations: There are certain distinct differences between the cultures of the tribal and non-tribal communities. This difference is mainly noticed in their religious and social systems. There is a common place of worship, i.e. Gram-than in the villages for all the communities. Gram-than happens to be an arbor, a natural place. Village-pujas are performed there as nature worship. Leave apart this religious similarity, there are differences in other aspects of culture. Tribals’ place of worship also is a similar one like Puja than. Tribals’ worship and festivals are totally different from those of the non-tribals. Tribals’ festivals are directly associated with the seasons and agricultural activity. They don’t worship idols and they don’t have any building for worship like the other religionists. The tribals have their own priests. The non-tribal communities have a separate coste like Brahmans to perform the Puja and conduct Bhajan-Kirtans.

Even today, there is a living internal social system in the tribal communities. They have a hereditary representative in every village who performs the social and religious role. Certain number of villagers of a particular tribe form a middle level unit and similarly higher level unit is formed with bigger number of villages. On important occasions, the representatives of these units meet. There is a strong tradition of holding a social court to take decisions on cases of violating the social norms. People of fifties of villages gather in an open space outside the village and Panches(jury) are elected. The meeting continues until the case is settled. It continues for days together and nobody can go away leaving the meeting.

Here this needs to be made clear that these cultural specialties of the tribal society are independently maintained in every community. There is no inter-connection among these social-judicial processes going on in the different communities.

Normally, there is tribals-like religious, social and judicial system in the non-tribal communities. They have distinct identities of their castes and they marry within their caste. They do not have any system of conducting social affairs in a formation with a cluster of villages beyond their own village. Because of this, social interaction among the members of a particular caste is very weak beyond the village in these castes.

However, this is also not possible to view the tribals and non-tribals totally separated in camps in the Chandil area. In the Bhumij, a tribal community, Brahmans are compulsorily called in social ceremonies and idol-worship has become prevalent in this community. On the other hand, presence of Brahmans is not essential in social functions in the Kurmi caste, which comes in the category of non-tribal communities. They have a social-judicial system like the Santhals though a bit weaker.

Social relations among the castes have a definite pattern in the villages. While the caste difference separates them socially, there is also a tradition of certain collectivism as the members of a village. Only the members of the caste are given priority to participate in the ceremonies like marriage, funerals etc. At first the members of the caste are given feasts separately and later the members of the other castes participate in the feast.

Here it is necessary to mention about the special position of the inter-community relationship in the tribal society. Bhumij family used to have the Jamindari in the Chandil area. So the Bhumijs consider themselves a ruling community and consider themselves higher than the Santhals. Now they are politically also clearly different from each other. The Bhumijs of this area are tilted towards the Congress party; they had never associated

with Jharkhand movement whereas the Santhal community is actively and sentimentally associated with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.

Past struggles and the politico-administrative situation of the region

People of ‘Ho’ community had maintained their socio-political autonomy in Kolhan region for hundreds of years. Feudal kings used to rule in the areas adjacent to Kolhan. They had many times invaded Kolhan to take it over but the ‘Ho’ community failed their designs. In 1818, the king of Podahat invaded the area with the help of the British. The ‘Ho’ people forcefully resisted them. ‘Ho’ people also participated in the Kol revolt by Mundas in 1831. After the Kol revolt, the British constituted South-Western Frontier Agency under the Regulation XIII of 1833. Under this regulation, separate rules known as Wilkinson Rules were formulated for administering the area. Kolhan was merged in this agency in 1937. Kolhan used to be considered a distinct unit of the administration. Under Wilkinson Rules, the Munda (village chief)-Manki (Pargana chief) system prevalent in the Ho community was given formal recognition. The British administration had declared that their main principle of administration in the Kolhan area was to maintain the community system of the Ho community, to protect their lands from getting alienated and to protect them from getting dominated by outsiders. Under the Wilkinson Rules, the Mankis were considered responsible for preventing crimes, regular payment of revenue and taking decision on some other issues. There used to be a Munda in each of the villages to assist the Manki in his duties. Frontier Agency was dissolved in 1854.

The said Manki-Munda system became inactive after the Bihar Land Reforms Act and Bihar Village Panchayat Act came into force. But, due to certain judicial and administrative decisions, importance of this system continued in some sense. The Patna High Court had decided in 1958 that the Civil Procedure Code and Indian Inheritance Act are not applicable to the Kolhan area. In the Revision Survey of 1964, record of the rights of Mankis and Mundas was accepted.

[Source of the above two paragraphs – Census of India-1981, District Census Handbook Series-Bihar and Report of Jharkhand Matters Committee (May 1990)]

In the eighties and nineties, a militant organisation named Kolhan Raksha Sangh claimed that the legality of the administrative autonomy granted during the British Rule under Wilkinson Rules continues to be valid in independent India also. This organisation had a strong mass base and it had challenged the existing administrative system through underground activities.

Whatever be the legal-administrative position of the Munda-Manki system, even today the system of Mundas and Mankis is prevalent in the society of Kolhan. The Mundas and Mankis even today play a social role and they are recognised by the people there.

Jamindari system was in force with all its might in the area of Rajnagar known as Rajbadi. Even today, the landlord family of Icha is called Icha-state.

The Nimdih region of Chandil dam area is witness to Bhumij revolt (1832) led by Ganga Narayan Singh during the British period. This area was under an administrative unit known as Manbhum. This entire region was under several landlords known as Rajas. There used to be the Jamindari of Ichagarh estate in a big part of the submergence area of Chandil dam. One does not hear about the existence of any traditional community system of administration at any level there.

Because of this difference in the historical background, there has been a distinct difference in the cultural awareness also in these areas. They have different approaches about rights on land and natural resources, and the relationship between the state and the

community/village. The concept of the natural and inalienable right of the village society on the land is strongly entrenched in the psyche of the people of the Kolhan area. People hold in this area that even the government cannot intervene in certain matters of the village society, i.e. the government is not all-powerful and all pervading. There is awareness of right on the ancestral property in Rajbadi and Patkum but there is also the concept that the government can intervene whenever it wishes. Because of this background, there were different dimensions of initiatives and resistance by civil society against displacement in these areas. The issue of decisive right on land in Patkum and Rajbadi was raised by a consciousness brought from outside. The thought of getting their rights through struggle also was inspired from outside. In Kolhan, it was the issue of protecting their natural and inalienable right. These aspects of cultural awareness play a big role in the determination of the initiative of the civil society, continuity of the movement and direction and form of collective efforts.

Geographical location, economic condition and civic amenities of the area

Chandil dam is located at a distance of 35-37 kms from Jamshedpur and 1.5 kms from the National Highway No. 33. The venue of Icha dam is located 8-10 kms. away from Chaibasa and very close to the Jamshedpur-Chaibasa State Highway. Although both the dam sites are situated in West Singhbhum, the people of Chandil area are more in touch with Jamshedpur except for administrative purposes. Jamshedpur, the headquarters of East Singhbhum, is much bigger and much more developed than Chaibasa, the district headquarter of West Singhbhum.

With respect to availability of mineral resources, both the districts of West Singhbhum and East Singhbhum are known for their rich mineral deposits in the world. A big part of West Singhbhum is full of iron ore and granite stones. Moreover, minerals like chromite, clay, gold, magnesite, manganese, kynite, limestone, silica, asbestos and soapstone are available in these districts. Uranium and copper mines are located in East Singhbhum. There are old closed gold mines in West Singhbhum. Stones used in making statues and utensils and construction work are found in the Chandil dam area. Gold is extracted from the areas on the banks of the river also. People of 15-20 villages have been engaged in the profession of extracting gold from the soil/sand since many centuries. More forests will be submerged in the Icha dam area than the Chandil dam area. [Main source: Census of India-1981]

Chaibasa, headquarter of West Singhbhum, which comes under Kolhan area, is mainly a market center. There are no big industries in this town. However, there is a cement factory and big iron-ore mines in this district. Jamshedpur is an important industrial center of not only Bihar but also of the country. Big companies like Tisco, Telco, Tinplate, Indian Cable are located here. There are factories of Uranium Corporation of India and the Indian Copper Corporation Limited in this district. It may be noted that the river Subarnarekha flows by Jamshedpur, copper factory and copper mines. Plan is to supply water from the Kharkai barrage to Adityapur Industrial area and to Jamshedpur from the Chandil dam.

Occupational pattern in the dam areas: In the villages of Icha dam area, occupational division is as follows: Cultivators – 25.7%; Agricultural labor – 9.4%; Household industry – 1.1%; Workers in other areas – 3.6%; Marginal workers – 3.7%; and Non-workers – 56.5%. In the Chandil area, the division is as follows: Cultivators – 20.9%; Agricultural labour –6.9%; Household industry – 0.8%; Other workers – 2.7%; Marginal workers –12.7%; and Non-workers – 56%. A comparison between the two areas shows that persons working as farmers, agricultural labourers and workers in household industry are less in Icha area compared to Chandil area. Number of marginal workers is more in Chandil area compared to Icha area. In the areas in the command area, number of persons engaged in agriculture

and other employment is less compared to the area of submergence. [Source: Environmental Impact Assessment of SMP–1993, See Annexure-].

Condition of the land and its use : Data for the villages in the area of submergence is not available in this regard. So the figures for the blocks in which the villages to be submerged are located are being given here. Figures for the Rajnagar block of the Icha area also is not available. Perhaps it was constituted after the census of 1981. 73.70% land of the total area of the Chaibasa block is cultivable and only 0.34% of it is irrigated. 76.45% of the total area of Tantnagar block is cultivable and 1.74% of it is irrigated. 40.82% of the total area of the Chandil block is cultivable and 6.95% of it is irrigated. 67.80% of the total area of Ichagarh is cultivable and 4.13% of it is irrigated. 58.88% of the total area of Nimdih block is cultivable and 4.27% of it is irrigated. [Source: District Census Handbook, Singhbhum – 1981]

The interpretation of satellite imageries shows that kharif farming is done in 55.79% of the catchment area in the Chandil region and in 66.71% of the catchment area in the Icha region. Both the areas are mainly single(kharif) crop areas; crops are grown during rains. It can be easily concluded from the density of population and area of cultivableland in both the areas that the villagers of Icha area have got more cultivable land than the villagers of the Chandil area.

Although all the castes of the villages are more or less associated with agriculture, there is some difference in the professions of the castes on the basis of priority. Kurmis are essentially an agricultural community. This caste leads in growing vegetables for cash income and thus it has a clear involvement with market. This caste is ahead of other castes in its interest and involvement in education and politics also. The tribal communities like Santhal and Bhumij are mainly agricultural communities but they don’t grow any crop with the principal objective of selling it in the market. The Mahali and Lohara tribal communities are associated with the work of bamboo and ironwork. The members of Gope community also are farmers but they are also agricultural labourers out of necessity. The backward castes like Poddar, Mandal, Sao, Gorai are trading communities. Some of them are engaged and some in business. Backward castes like Kamar, Kumhar, are artisan castes. Rajak, Dome, Ghasi, Layak(Bhuia) are Dalit castes and they have negligible amount of agricultural lands. They are engaged as labourers. Members of the castes like Das, Brahman and Rajput don’t do physical labour in agriculture and they always attempt to find new avenues of employment. Thus, we can see that the members of the Poddar, Mandal, Sao, Gorai, Mahali, Das, Brahman, Kamar, Kumhar, Lohar, Rajk, Dom, Ghas castes are by tradition less involved in agricultural work. Another relevant point in this is that the youths of Kurmi(Mahato) community are very much aspire for jobs.

Literacy and civic amenities: Literacy level is almost same in both the Icha and Chandil dam area. Male literacy is a bit better in Chandil area than the Icha area and worse in the matter of female literacy. However, the literacy rate in the dam areas is less than the literacy rate of the concerned blocks. The male and female literacy rates are 23.2% and 9.2% respectively together in the two dam areas. In the villages of Chandil dam area, male and female literacy rates are 19.2% and 3.4% respectively. In Icha dam area, male and female literacy rates are 16% and 3.6% respectively. [Source : Environmental Impact Assessment – 1993].

As for the civic amenities in the areas, situation is as follows. Opportunities/facilities of education(better to say primary education) reached 78.38% of the villages in Chaibasa block, 76.32% in Tantnagar block, 87.38% in Chandil, 74.81% in Ichagarh block, and 83.13% in Nimdih block. Health services have reached to 2.7% of the Chaibasa block, 5.26% of Tantnagar block, 5.34% of Ichagarh block, 15.53% of Chandil block and 8.43% of Nimdih block. According to the government figures, hundred percent villages have got the

facility of drinking water. But truth is that by the month of April crisis of drinking water starts hovering around the villages.

The environment of displacement that generates misery

The villages coming under the dam areas of Chandil and Icha never faced a big project causing displacement. There were tragic consequences of displacement on a large scale all out in the surrounding areas. Lakhs and lakhs of people have been displaced from their steady resources of livelihood and regular opportunities due to collieries, iron-ore and copper mines, big factories like HEC, Bokaro Steel etc and big dam projects like Tenughat, Maithon and Panchet. And a negligible number of these displaced got opportunities created in the new structures of development by those projects. Most of the jobs went to people from other areas. There have been mass movements all over the area in different forms with different intensities against displacement.

Tradition of police repression in Singhbhum

Spontaneous agitational activities have been coming up time to time from inside the society in the districts of Singhbhum, particularly in West Singhbhum. The main tone of these activities has been about their rights on forests and adequate share in the employment/jobs in the projects of the area. Most cruel atrocities have been being perpetrated on the spontaneous local civil society movements.

There was a chain of police firings and merciless police repression during the later part of the seventies and early eighties. During the period from 1978 to 1985, there were 15 to 20 such incidents in which about 40 persons died and more than hundred persons were injured. Joyda firing(1978), Gua firing(1980), Sarjomhatu firing(1981), murder of Gangaram Kalundia(1982), Tiruldih firing(1982),murder of Bidar Nag(1983), Jhinkpani firing(1983), Bharbharia firing and Goelkera firing(1985)… there is a long list of such bloody incidents. It may be noted that Gangaram Kalundia and Bidar Nag were young retired soldiers of Indian Army. 3 of these incidents were related with repression on the resistance against the SMP project.

[Source: A report compiled by Tribal Research and Training Centre].

A broad-based ideology of civil intervention and regeneration of power

A distinct type of people’s politics had emerged in Bihar during the seventies. Despite organisational-ideological differences in all the struggle-oriented mass movements in Independent India there has been a basic similarity among them. All those movements considered the state as the central power. Those movements were intervening in the policies of the state and the ways and means of governance but their decisive aim was to become the dominant power of the rule. Despite differences in the path and forms of struggles, the parliamentary communist parties, socialist parties and Naxalite groups had similar thoughts about the ultimate political goal.

For the first time, differing from the statist people’s initiative, a stream of people’s initiative bloomed on a broad scale in a very clear and effective manner in 1974. It will be better to say that a new ideology of bringing about a radical change through continuous intervention in the policy and method of rule by the power of the civil society, while remaining outside the government, in the form of a widespread mass movement evolved. This stream was not the outcome of any idle idealist dream. This stream had taken birth due to a historical necessity to redefine the role of the citizens and the society in the relationship between the state and the society, state and the citizens and in the entire process of governance. Basing on this very ideology, a youth organisation like Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini was born.

The mention of the origin of this stream has relevance here. Not in the beginning, but from the later part till now the groups belonging to this stream have been active in the role of leadership of the movements in both the dam areas.

During this very time period, particularly in the area of Jharkhand, activities of interventions by citizens/communities were evolving in a spontaneous manner with the concept that the role of the society and community is primary and decisive. The movements of Kolhan Raksha Sangh, Koel-Karo Jan-Sangathan and the initial resistance of the Icha dam area represent this trend.

The above two trends cannot be considered similar in all their dimensions/aspects but they were similar in the fact that both of them do not consider the state as central and decisive. Both these trends worked together in the Icha area.

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Main problems of governance and the issues of intervention by CSOs

SMP had come with the promise of prosperity but the people residing in the area of submergence had to face very many serious problems as a consequence of the construction of the Project. As this project is under construction by the decision of the state/government, the problems that cropped up from this should be identified as the problems of the governance.

These problems can be presented in the following manner:

1) The process of acquiring people’s lands was initiated without giving information about the Project to the people and without taking their consent.

2) When the people started collective programmes of action to publicly express their dissent on the Project, state repression was unleashed on them.

3) The police barbarously murdered leader of the movement.

4) When survey was started in villages for the acquisition of land, survey was not conducted on the spot. Latest position of agricultural plots was not recorded. Making partial changes in the ownership position of the plots, they were made disputed.

5) Taking bribes, lands of lower category were recorded as higher category lands.

6) In general, houses were devalued. Mischief was played in the valuation of houses for bribes.

7) Steady resources of livelihood were not provided to compensate for the acquired permanent resources like agricultural plots.

8) The rate of compensation was many times less than the market price.

9) Bribes were taken for the payment of compensation.

10) With the complicity of the Mukhias and local middlemen, the corrupt employees and the officers paid the compensation money of the rightful owners of land to the false claimants, and the culprits divided the booty among themselves.

11) Despite demand by the displaced, payment of compensation in village camps was not made compulsory.

12) While the people continued to live in the villages, schools and post offices were shifted from many villages even before providing all the provisions of rehabilitation.

13) On the plea of the village being in the area of submergence, development schemes have been withdrawn from the villages.

14) Construction of dam continued in such a manner that water logged even in villages that were only partially rehabilitated.

15) Such lands also were submerged for which compensation was not paid or those that were not even acquired. Despite demand, the Project did not pay compensation for the crops that were destroyed in submergence.

16) As headquarter of the Project is far away, the displaced had to face a lot of trouble in going to the office and incur expenditure. In spite of drawing attention towards this, offices relevant for the displaced were not brought to the dam site, rather some such offices were removed from there.

17) The Project never on its own made information needed by the displaced available to them; people got information only when they went to the office and sought for it.

18) No arrangement was made for the participation of the organisations of the displaced in the working (even in the form of advise or supervision) of the Project. Later, such a process was developed but the project office did not co-operate with it. The Project administration had made a provision of giving representation to Mukhia and Sarpanch ineffective in the initial stage itself.

19) In after acquiring the land, land rent is being collected from the earlier land -owners. Project office also has made rent payment essential because receipts showing payment to date is demanded for certain procedures of rehabilitation.

20) All the facilities announced in the rehabilitation document of the Project have not been provided in the rehabilitation colonies even after many years of allotment of plots and construction of houses by the displaced.

21) Perhaps, nobody settled in the rehabilitation colony has been offered 25 decimal land despite such provision.

22) Many persons settled in the rehabilitation colonies have not been given legal documents showing ownership rights on the residential plots.

23) Programs like arranging finance for technical training and self-employment announced in the rehabilitation scheme were not implemented.

24) Many provisions of the revised rehabilitation policy, specially announced for the Subarnarekha Multi-purpose Project, have not been made available to the displaced even now.

25) Contractors and concerned officers and employees have embezzled funds meant for the construction of the dam and the rehabilitation colonies.

26) Despite the provision to form co-operative societies of the displaced, trained in fishing, and to give fishing rights to them, fishing contract was auctioned to outsiders.

27) Some villages, which were to be submerged in the later phase according to an assessment by the engineers of the Project, were submerged in the earlier phase itself and properties of these villages were damaged on a large scale due to sudden unexpected waterlogging. Neither this loss was compensated nor the technical assessment about submergence of villages was re-examined. That means the danger of unexpected submergence continues to remain.

28) The displaced and the organisation of the displaced raised their issues at different levels in court but the required judicial judgement was not received.

Here again this needs to be mentioned that evolution of intervention by the CSOs in both the Icha and Chandil areas took place in two different forms. Opposition to dam continued in the Icha area. Due to the combined effect of various factors, the dam was not constructed there. And so the issues of waterlogging, displacement and rehabilitation did not arise. After oppression by the government during the first phase of opposition to dam in Chandil, there was a long period of inactivity. During that period, major part of the work of land acquisition and dam construction was completed. The beginning of the intervention by the people in the second phase here was made with the demand of proper rehabilitation. That means the problems related to submergence and rehabilitation mentioned above are concerned only with the Chandil area.

CSOs of the concerned areas continuously remained active for the solution of the above said problems. It will be better to classify the actions of public intervention in these problems and the attitude of the different units of the Project administration & the government towards such actions in the following manner to understand them better.

1. Process of working out the Project

Since the beginning of the construction work of the Project, people of both the proposed dam areas had started opposing the dam. People did not want to give their lands for the project. Along with the evolution of the movement, a logical basis of dissent also evolved. Both the movements raised many types of questions and objections on the justification of the original form of the Project.

It was argued on behalf of the movement that the development strategy of displacing such a large population from their permanent resources of livelihood and benefiting the population of another area is not justified on the criteria of balanced development and justice. An ideological concept also was put forth on behalf of the movement that it was undemocratic and unjustified to acquire the lands of the people without consulting the people, to be affected by the Project, on the form of the Project and without taking their consent. The movement also held that the project did not seem to be inevitable even for the basic objective of irrigation. It is possible to achieve the target of irrigation with relatively less displacement through small irrigation schemes like ponds, small dams etc. That alternative measures for the achievement of the objectives of the project were not considered before the formulation of the project is unscientific.

The logic behind the objections raised by the civil society organizations (CSOs) active in both the dam areas seem to be quite strong. The main ground of these objections has been the need of democratic process and selection of suitable techniques for the good of the maximum possible people.

The Project was worked out in a long process. During this long period, it was possible to have consultations with the citizens on the objectives and form of the project. Yet, such process was not adopted. Since the formulation to the acceptance of the Project, it took more than five years. But the process was confined among government’s technologists, officers and the ministers. Even after the framework of the project was determined, approval was obtained for the project and aggreement was concluded among the governments of the three states (Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal), no formal procedure was adopted to make the information of the project public and to reach it to the villages which were to be affected by the project. Only half-baked information reached the villagers, that too through informal chats of certain persons who remain in touch with the government

offices. An example of the half-baked information was noticed during interviews. Many villagers of the Chandil area said that 84 villages would be submerged in the dam whereas some persons in the leadership of the Icha area said that Icha dam would affect 120 villages. [According to the documents of the Project, these figures are 116 and 66 respectively.]

This reality exposes a particular negative aspect of the governance. The government considers itself the total and sole representative of the people. The government not only thinks that the common people have no right to participate in the formulation of the project but it does not even consider them eligible to get information about the project. Not only this, the government does not consider the representatives of the village panchayat, which is considered a unit of the local self-government, eligible for this participation and information.

Expressing their opposition to the Project, the people of both the areas had only made a natural attempt to protect their means of livelihood, opportunities of employment and their culture. Moreover, they had expressed their claim to have the right to know about the project and participate in its formulation that had direct bearing on their lives.

Thus, it can be conclusively said that this struggle has raised the issue of reviewing the prevalent procedure of making the project on the criteria of people’s participation.

2. Citizens’ contention on the Project and the role of the government

The government had not allowed any participation of the civil society in the matters of the Project. Despite this, the civil society had considered it necessary to express its opinion on the Project that was going to make a negative impact on their life and culture. The civil society had expressed this opinion in the form of its dissent on the Project through various programmes. Their feeling of their natural right to express their right to governance and their expectation of a favourable decision by the governance was manifested in these programmes of dissent.

Government’s role was extremely intolerant and tyrannical towards these expressions of dissent by the people. Hunger-strike against Chandil dam was considered as a crisis for law & order. Section 144 was clamped at the venue of the fast. 89 persons were held guilty for violating law and arrested, and they were thrown into the vehicles in a cruel manner. Huts at the site of fast were destroyed. When the agitators tried to continue the fast on the second day indiscriminate firing was resorted to. Those running away from the spot were chased and beaten up. In this assault, two persons died and many were injured. After this incident, the police force went into the villages for 2-3 days and terrorised the villagers. Police went in 11 trucks to the village Bita in Icha dam area in March 1982 and demolished the house of Sidiu Tigu and Sura Purti, activists of the anti-dam movement, and persons opposing the police action were beaten up. Heavy police force came to village Iligada at nighttime to arrest Gangaram Kalundia, leader of the movement, on 4 April 1982. Gangaram Kalundia was shot in his leg and he was taken away. Then piercing his body with bayonets they killed him and the dead body was thrown at the bank of the river. In 1982 itself, police fired on youths and students who were demonstrating in front of the Tiruldih block office on the demand of jobs for the displaced people. Two youths died in the firing.

During the later phase also, the repressive role of the civil and police administration continued. Team of activists conducting economic survey of the villages under the Icha dam area were arrested and beaten up. In collusion with contractors, false cases were lodged against the leaders of the agitation and sent to jail. Persons engaged in peaceful resistance to stop the construction work of the Project were arrested and sent to jail continuously for several days. 300 to 450 persons including women were arrested. In

Chandil dam area, the project officers lodged false cases of theft and ransacking against agitators who were on fast for 6 days. In collusion with middlemen, the officer-in-charge of Ichagarh police station lodged false cases against the leading persons of the movements and beat them up in the police station, and then sent to jail.

These incidents demonstrate a certain attitude of the government machinery. Not only the government on its own initiative does not want to give any opportunity to the citizens to participate in any decision or get any information, but it also considers that any dissenting opinion of the citizens is undesirable. The government considers such dissent as an activity that causes law & order problem. Government considers any expression of opposition to government’s decisions a crime or punishable offence, instead of considering it a democratic right of the people. At first, the government tries to deal with such expressions of dissent by methods like arrests etc. But when such activities continue despite the repressive actions, the government thinks it necessary to immediately punish the people for such dissenting actions and in this process it ignores the judicial procedure, rule of law and the fundamental rights of the citizens.

Though such attitude of the governance is not its characteristic method or procedure, it should certainly be delineated as the dominant trend, practice and style of work of the present government machinery.

One can notice the attitude and style of work of the higher echelons of the government during the course of the following incidents in this phenomenon. Just 2-3 days after the Joyda firing (the venue of fast). A four-member team consisting two parliamentary secretaries and two legislators had come on a visit to the spot and the surrounding area to take an account of the circumstances of firing. The team found that the firing was unnecessary, inhuman and shameful. The team had also found that the administrative officers and the magistrate who ordered firing had deceitfully bandaged themselves to show that the agitators at the fasting programme were aggressive and violent, and thus to justify the firing. The team had also said that deliberately less fuel was put in their jeep in order to stop them from going into the villages and gathering information. It may be noted that even after arriving at such conclusions the team did not recommend or advise any action against the guilty officers. This also should be noted that the team returned without fulfilling its task of contacting the public. More noteworthy than these two points is that despite the report of the team no action was taken against the officers responsible for the firing. After the murder of Gangaram Kalundia, his wife had tried to lodge an FIR in the local police station but the officer-in-charge did not accept the FIR. Tribal Welfare Commission, Ranchi, investigated into this incident and demanded enquiry by CBI in a confidential report to the government. No action was taken despite this against the guilty officers.

It is obvious that even the state government in the real sense is not sensitive and serious enough to put a check to the said tendency and style of work of the administration that acts with the approach that right of expression is a crime. The government does not feel it necessary to protect civil liberties and reinstate the rule of law. During such incidents, simply some formalities are completed under pressure. The same attitude and work-style is prevalent at the higher level also. They think that persons who dissent from the government schemes are guiltier than the government officials who shoot them and repress them. Somewhere a mentality of protecting the officers as their own and considering the masses as alien prevails. They consider every unit of the government their own part while civil organizations are considered alien. They consider that their only duty is to protect their men in case of any guilt by them. Normally, this very method of thinking dominates their constitutional-legal beliefs.

3. Awareness of Justice in the judiciary

With the objective to put a stop to the irregularities, wrong decisions and actions of the Subarnarekha Multi-purpose Project and getting proper justice, the displaced people approached the court at every level both personally and organizationally.

Almost all the displaced people hold that they did not get the expected amount of compensation. Many displaced persons filed cases in the court under section 30 of the Land Acquisition Act. According to one estimate, number of such cases filed at personal level is about 800. Decisions have been given only in a few of these cases. Decisions have been given only in a few isolated cases to increase the quantum of compensation. Most of the cases are pending in the court for more than 5 years.

Visthapit Mukti Vahini, organisation of the displaced working in Chandil area, had filed a petition for quick decision on these pending cases in the Ranchi bench of Patna High Court. It was demanded in the petition that camp courts should be set up in the areas of the displaced people and arrangement should be made to settle the cases at the earliest in view of the urgency. The court held that setting up of camp courts was impractical and directed the petitioners to present their viewpoint before the judge in connection with the cases.

Lopo Devgam, president of Domardiha Panchayat Kisan Committee of the Ichadam area, had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court 1985. It was prayed in the petition to put a stop to forcible eviction of the people affected by the Project, give immediate compensation to the displaced who have already been evicted and give order not to acquire land without making alternative lands available. The petitioners did not get favourable decision.

Visthapit Mukti Vahini had filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 1992. Appeal was made in the said petition to direct the project to make all the information about the project public, declare Land Acquisition Act unconstitutional and to constitute a Rehabilitation Implementation and Vigilence Committee giving representation to the displaced, organisations of the displaced, Women’s Commission, Scheduled castes & Scheduled Tribes Commissioner and other non-governmental organisations. The Supreme Court had transferred the petition to the Ranchi Bench of the Patna High Court directing to hear the case along with the petition filed by the displaced people of the Kutku dam in the High Court. This case is still pending in the Ranchi bench.

It is clear from the entire situation that this judicial system is not interested to come out of its prevailing style of work. One also learns from this that the judiciary does not feel the urgency of the issues of displacement, compensation and rehabilitation, and it does not have intense awareness of the problem. Had it felt the urgency, instead of transferring the case to lower court the case in the lower court would have been called to the higher court, and decision would have been taken giving it priority. Two cases related with dismissal from employment were sent by the High Court to the Project administration directing it to review the cases. It seems from this that the court trusts the Project more than the petitioner and does not usually want to intervene in Project’s decisions.

1. Transparency and easy access to information

Leaving some exceptions, the government or the project office never made any information about the Project public. The villagers got first formal information about the Project and the acquisition of land through the notice given under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act. Once possible submergence of some areas was announced in village market by drum beating. During interviews, most of the respondents said that even after going to the office and asking for information desired information was never given. The Project employees dilly-dallied in giving information. Only such information was given that,

if spread among people, would financially benefit the employees and the officers of the Project. The leading activists of Visthapit Mukti Vahini(VMV) several times demanded documents related with the project from the top officials of the project. They were only told – You cannot get those documents, you may look into them in the record room or library. And the documents were not available in the record room and the library also. Whenever any person asked for the document about the project, he/she was given Project’s propaganda booklet ‘Promise of Prosperity’. In the later phase, a relatively honest Administrator was posted in the Project and a favourable relation was developed between him and the VMV. Since then, some documents related to the Project started being given to them. But, even then only such documents were given that focussed a better image of the Project. Documents that could become a basis for adverse valuation of the Project were not made available. Many times, VMV asked the Administrator for the family survey report by XISS, Ranchi, conducted in the villages of Chandil area, but it was not given. It was on the basis of this report that the Administrator had recommended to the Water Resources Ministry, Bihar, that it was not possible to provide rehabilitation to every person who had completed 18 years of age on the date of receiving compensation and grants because that would double the number of recepients of the facility.

It is obvious from the above facts that the Project was not committed to transparency. The Project did not also favour easy access to information even to concerned persons. Organisation of the displaced repeatedly demanded that information should be made public and made it an issue in its petition to the Supreme Court but this did not make any difference in the attitude of the Project.

5. Decentralization of procedure

This much is clear from the facts mentioned above that process of decentralisation was not implemented in the Project. One of the basic conditions of the actual process of decentralisation is that feelings and role of the common people should be given importance. This condition did not have any place in the framework and programme of the Project. Here an attempt has been made to analyse elements of internal decentralisation in the framework of the Project and forms of interaction with the displaced.

Provision of a co-ordination committee was made in the rehabilitation scheme of the Project. Its main role was to hold consultations on the progress in the work of rehabilitation. Provision was made to include MP, MLA and Mukhia/Sarpanch in the committee in the name of giving representation to the displaced. Meetings of the co-ordination committee used to be held in the initial period for some days. But when the Mukhias and Sarpanchs started asking questions in the meetings, wanting information and expressing their opposition in certain matters, the arrangement was done away with by making the meetings irregular and slack.

Similarly, co-ordination committee and Rehabilitation Site Selection Committee also were formed for selecting sites for rehabilitation. Local administrative officers and Mukhias, Sarpanchs etc. were included in it. But rarely ever this committee acted.

VMV always demanded that camps should be held in the villages for paying compensation. Initially, a considerable part of the compensation was paid in camps organised area-wise, though not in the village camps. The experience of this payment was that bribery and other irregularities were very less in this system. Later, the procedure of payment through camps was stopped. After repeated pressures, it was again decided to organise camps. Some payments were made in camps for a day or two but the employees and officers stopped coming to the camps on one or the other pretext, and forced the villagers to come to the office for taking payment. The officers and employees abhorred the process of camp payment because psychologically the ability of the displaced to intervene

and resist increased with that. VMV also had been demanding that the top officials should regularly sit in the offices at Chandil dam site to listen to the problems of the displaced. It was decided that either the Administrator or a senior officer under him would sit for a few hours on every Saturday and listen to the problems of the displaced. Implementation of this decision was also started. The displaced were very much enthused with this weekly camp by the top officials. VMV’s organisational dynamism also increased. A large number of displaced used to come on every Saturday to the meeting including the leading group of the organisation. Problems related to rehabilitation were placed before the officer. On the occasion, the displaced used to hold their meeting also. After this continued regularly for some months, the senior officers stopped coming to the meeting.

Organisation of the displaced started raising the issue of partial rehabilitation repeatedly before the World Bank team and in the media. Then the Administrator proposed to constitute a task force with honest employees suggested by VMV for supervising the rehabilitation work. This team was required to go to the villages and find out the problems related to rehabilitation, and this task force was to work under the top officials of the project. Weekly meeting of the task force, senior officers of the Project and representatives of the organisation of the displaced used to be held. Through this process, many problems of rehabilitation were effectively solved. Attitude of the general employees and officers of the Project remained non co-operative towards this task force. Ultimately, due to shortage of funds for rehabilitation, the members of the Task Force and VMV proposed to dissolve the task force.

These episodes have some clear conclusions. Firstly, the element of internal decentralisation was not there in the framework of the Project. The employees and officers abhorred going to villages because that was against the their narrow selfish interests. If at all ever there was any dialogue between the displaced and the Project administration, it was due to the decisions of the relatively honest top officer. Never did the project employees fully co-operate with this process. In the matter of decentralisation, commitment and effectiveness of even the relatively honest and sensitive officer proved limited. To whatever extent this process was successful, it was only due to a team of committed and honest persons who were in direct contact with the displaced.

6. Control on corruption

Corruption was invariably associated with every activity of the Project. The displaced villagers had to face corruption at every step from the beginning to the end. Majority of the problems of the displaced listed in the beginning of this chapter are the outcome of corruption. An example of the dimension of corruption in SMP can be gauged from this statement of the minister for Water Resources of Bihar that Rs 100 crores have been looted in the SMP. In his report for the year ending 31 March 1998, Comptroller &Auditor General of India has given the details of quite a number of major financial irregularities.

The organisation that has been active among the displaced of the Chandil dam area continuously maintained its campaign against corruption. But its activity was mainly confined to stopping plunder of the funds meant for the rehabilitation of the displaced. Mukhia of a Panchayat and his associates usurped the compensation money of two displaced persons through imposters. In a third case, bank employees and the Mukhia colluded in withdrawing Rs 40,000 from the account of a displaced person. For giving compensation, the Project had a procedure to get the displaced identified by a Mukhia. The Mukhia was given a role also at the time of withdrawal of money by the displaced from bank account. In all these three cases, with the sustained efforts by VMV, the usurpers were forced to return the usurped money to the rightful persons. Of course, some officers also played a positive role in this effort. After this success, fraudulent withdrawals and other corrupt activities of the middlemen were checked. To certain extent, the commissions taken

by the project employees and the middlemen were stopped. Most of such displaced persons who were directly associated with the organisation got their compensation without giving bribes. With a decision of the ministry of water resources, another form of corruption was checked. In the initial stage of the Project, there was a provision that engineers of the project above certain level could verbally permit payment of certain amount of money to contractors. The contractors and engineers made a lot of illicit money using this provision. Later, the government cancelled this provision of verbal permission.

A particular action by VMV against the corruption among the project employees is noteworthy. A junior officer of the Project was extorting money from the displaced in Salbani in lieu of writing application for getting new rehabilitation Pustika. VMV activists and villagers caught hold of him and took him to police station and filed a complaint. Making this an issue, project employees struck work in protest against this incident stating that VMV’s activists were troubling them.

These are very limited number of successes. Neither the organisation of the displaced could put pressure effectively on most of the forms of corruption nor the senior officers took any action. In the absence of transparency in the project, most of the incidents of corruption did not come up before the people.

It will be relevant to enlist the main forms of corruption here:

1) Making somebody claim compensation for government land and distribute the booty among the colluding employees, middlemen and false claimant; 2) To Show excess earth work and make additional payment for the same; 3) Using sub-standard materials in construction work; 4) Imaginary constructions and imaginary afforestation; 5) Utilizing funds meant for rehabilitation for other purposes; 6) Not adjusting advances given to employees and officers.

This has been seen in this chapter that corruption has become an inseparable part of the nature and work-culture of the project employees, and organised machinery has been built up in favour of corruption. No mechanism was created in the project for checking corruption. With the successes achieved in the campaign against corruption, a spontaneous resistance developed in the people against corruption. One can conclude from this that it is possible to evolve a strong mass campaign against corruption if the administration favorably responds to the anti-corruption activities. This is also obvious from the above said details that corruption can be controlled only with the help of transparency, a special mechanism for vigilance and action, and, last but not the least, pressure from the people.

7. Necessity to review the Project in the light of the unassessed developments

When the assessment by the Project started being proved false, organisation of the displaced insisted to continue further project work only after reviewing the Project in the light of the new facts.

This demand was made with reference to waterlogging in the area of submergence in 1991. First phase of the construction was over. That year the Project and the district administration had assessed that 18 villages would be submerged during the rainy season, and accordingly contingency plan was prepared for providing relief to the submerged villages. But that year more than 40 villages were affected by waterlogging. Thus assessment was proved wrong not only on this point, but even such villages were submerged which, according to the Project, should not have been submerged during that time. Janum-Palashdih was to come under submergence after the submergence of 50

villages. But quite a large part of lands of that village was submerged. Rasunia village should have been submerged in the first phase itself according to the Project assessment but water did not log there. The villagers of Durri village had many times expressed their apprehension before the Administrator that their village would be submerged that year and that immediate arrangement of rehabilitation should be made for them. Each time the Administrator dismissed their apprehension referring to the assessment by the project engineers. However, water entered that village with force at midnight. The villagers had to shift overnight to other places. Later, the Administrator agreed that the engineers were wrong and freed himself from any responsibility.

VMV took up this issue seriously. VMV held that with this submergence it is proved that levels of the lands of the villages were not assessed correctly. So the reliability of the list of the villages to come under submergence comes under doubt, and thus the reliability of the entire Project comes under doubt. Therefore, it’s the responsibility of the government to again conduct technical assessment of the Project. VMV had raised this question even in its petition to the Supreme Court and also placed before the World Bank team. Replying in the Supreme Court, the representative of the Project childishly argued that the land happened to be undulant and so water entered into the village Janum-Palashdih through low level area. The World Bank also did not pay attention to this point.

It is clear from this thing that commitment towards the goals and responsibilities is not primary to the Project, their primary aim is only to construct the Project. That is why despite adverse consequences it was not felt necessary to review the Project.

8. Government’s attitude towards civic amenities and development schemes for the displaced

The organisation of the displaced in the Chandil dam area had raised this issue also repeatedly.

Primary schools and post offices have been shifted from villages like Kalyanpur, Dimudih, Ruiyani-Piyaldih etc. whose lands were acquired. Civic amenities and developmental activities like road construction, tubewells etc. were stopped in the areas coming under full submergence although people live in these villages even now. Only the facility of ration-shops continues in these villages. Block officers tell the displaced that schemes cannot be run in the areas coming under submergence. Different type situations also have been seen. Road is being constructed in Bandhdih, which comes under the area of submergence. Except villages like Barkundia, developmental activities continue to be done in villages to come under submergence in Icha area.

Almost the same attitude has been noticed in the case of the displaced settled in rehabilitation colonies. Despite lack of water in the suksari rehabilitation colony, employees of PHED had been dilly-dallying in the matter of sinking tube-wells with the argument that it was the job of the Project to install tube-wells there.

One can conclude from these facts that the civil administrative machinery adopts irresponsible and arbitrary approach towards providing basic needs and facilities for the villagers coming under the area of submergence. It seems as if with the acquisition of lands of the villagers their citizenship ends.

9. Attitude towards protecting the natural resources

It never seemed that the Project had ever any vision to protect the natural resources. It will be more correct to say that the plan of the Project itself was prepared ignoring the value/importance of the natural resources and ignoring the responsibility to protect them.

Forests will be submerged in the Icha dam area. Though there are fewer forests in the Chandil dam area, gold and stones used for making statues and utensils are found in this area. Two old closed gold mines are situated in this area. Golden dust is found in 10 to 15 villages lying between the rivers Subarnarekha and Karkari, and the villagers have been extracting the gold particles from the soil and selling since hundreds of years. In difficult times, this has been proved an important means to sustain their lives. There is no data available in the assessment of the Project about the loss to be caused to these natural resources that had been providing livelihood to hundreds of people.

VMV had repeatedly raised this question during the rehabilitation movement saying that the Project did not have any vision to compensate the loss caused to the displaced by the destruction of natural resources, other than agriculture, that had been providing definite employment to them since many centuries. This question was raised in the petition submitted to Supreme Court also. Representative of the Project had replied that no mineral was being submerged. The falsehood of this reply can be proved from government’s documents of Geological Survey and Department of Mines.

10. The issue of proper sequence of acquisition, rehabilitation and displacement

The Project never followed the sequence of land acquisition, rehabilitation and displacement and thus put the lives of the displaced in crisis. There have been five such villages viz. Bandu, Patkum etc. where lands were not acquired, yet the lands of the villages are submerged. In many villages, rehabilitation is incomplete even according to the criteria of the Project, whereas lands are submerged on a large scale.

Repeatedly, the movement of the displaced has demanded that such constructions should not be undertaken that might cause submergence of villages whose rehabilitation is not complete. The movement has always been holding that process of acquisition of land should not be undertaken until and unless the entire process of rehabilitation is complete.

11. The responsibility to compensate for the loss caused on unacquired lands and on lands where rehabilitation is not complete

This has already been said earlier that water inundated even those lands that have not been acquired or for which rehabilitation has not been completed and crops on those lands have been destroyed, some houses also collapsed. VMV held that the Project was responsible for this loss and the Project should compensate for the loss to the affected families. Memorandum was also submitted to the Project authorities in this regard.

12. Incomplete rehabilitation, rehabilitation policy and demand to enact rehabilitation law

Intervention by the villagers affected by the Project in the Chandil area was concentrated on the demand of rehabilitation in the second phase. There are more than one dimension of this intervention. At one level, the issue of incomplete implementation of the rehabilitation plan prepared by the Project was raised and demand was made to quickly provide the rehabilitation facilities. At another level, the basic shortcomings in the rehabilitation plan were being raised and demand was being made from Bihar Government for formulating a rehabilitation policy for an assured and honourable life. At the third level, attempt was being made to mobilise the displaced of different areas at the national level for a rehabilitation policy and a rehabilitation law.

i. Already most of the issues associated with incomplete implementation of the provisions of the Project have been mentioned. Some other issues were the rights of get employment, technical training and to fish in the reservoir of

the Project. The rehabilitation movement has always raised this demand that the displaced should be employed in the jobs of the Project and they should be given priority in government jobs. Due to the pressure of the rehabilitation movement and the sincerity of the Administrator of the project, the displaced got considerable number of jobs during the later phase (more than a thousand). During the terms of two district officers also, there was favorable response to this demand. Both of them recruited the displaced on their own initiative in government jobs. It was said that a separate ITI (Industrial Training Institute) would be established for training the displaced under the rehabilitation plan of the Project. Because of continuous pressure of the displaced, the project had recommended for the establishment of ITI to the ministry of Labour and Employment of Bihar government but due to the indifference of the ministry this could never become a reality.

ii. Many times, delegations of the displaced met the Ministry of Water Resources with the demand to formulate a rehabilitation policy for the displaced in Bihar. As a consequence of this, through a government order a revised rehabilitation policy was issued in 1990 for SMP, though not for all the projects of Bihar. In this policy, provision was made to give Rs. 20,000 as house construction grant, a subsidy of Rs. 25,000 for purchasing and developing agricultural land for the displaced, from landless labourers to small farmers, and to provide training to one member of each displaced family at government cost. Two provisions were made with regard to land: 1) Government land will be settled in the names of the displaced on priority basis for agro-based tree plantation and gardens; 2) The land on the bank of the reservoir will be given only to the displaced for post-Kharif agriculture.

Under this policy, the terms displaced and family were redefined. In the earlier definition, only those persons were considered displaced whose houses would be submerged. But in the new definition, those families also were included in the category of the displaced whose half or more lands were acquired leaving two and half acres of irrigated land or less with them or three and half or less general land was left with the displaced. In the new definition of family, every adult was considered a separate family for getting the benefits of rehabiitation and it was said that nucleus family including husband-wife, minor sons and unmarried daughters would be considered independent family.

It may be noted that the issues raised by the movement of the displaced - land for land, house for house, concepts of ensuring stable employment to one member of each family - were accepted in principle. But the provisions made for them were impractical or inadequate. The Project made many attempts to make these partially positive provisions difficult. A condition was placed for the payment of the house construction grant that the grant would be given only to those who would build their houses at the rehabilitation sites. Later, the project administration agreed to grant the said grant to even those buildings that are built elsewhere. Later, a procedure was made that the grant would be given in three installments of Rs 8000, 6,000 and 6,000 inspecting the progress of construction. One more condition was added that the grant would be given only to those families who have got less than five acres of land and whose entire land would be submerged and who got less than Rs 50,000 as compensation for their house. A condition was stipulated with regard to purchase of land that subsidy would be given only after the sale-deed was shown. The Administrator dragged on the procedure of giving Vikas

Pustikas according to the new definition of the family in the new policy and ultimately only those persons were considered adults who attained the age of 18 on the date of land acquisition and Vikas Pustika was prepared accordingly.

After the formulation of this policy, more than 5,000 Vikas Pustikas were prepared, more than 4000 persons got house construction grants and 100 persons got land purchase subsidy. That means the new policy has been partially implemented.

ii. The CSO active in the Chandil dam area, i.e. Visthapit Mukti Vahini (VMV), has been demanding to enact National Rehabilitation Act and to formulate National Rehabilitation Policy since its inception. VMV prepared a people’s draft for rehabilitation policy and distributed it widely for a dialogue on it. VMV played a pioneering role to co-ordinate efforts on the joint issue of opposition to the projects, which are refused by the people, and formulation of national rehabilitation policy. Through a symposium at the level of Jharkhand, a list of basic and essential provisions of the national rehabilitation policy was prepared. VMV has been regularly associating with several efforts made for the evolution of national rehabilitation policy. In a seminar on national rehabilitation policy organised by Janmukti Sangharsh Vahini, the representatives of Gujarat’s Sardar Sarovar Rehabilitation Movement and the rehabilitation movement of Chandil prepared a people’s draft for the policy. The people’s draft raised the following important points:

· All-embracing amendments should be made in Land Acquisition Act with clauses for comprehensive rehabilitation.

· Rehabilitation should be given the status of fundamental right in the constitution. · National Rehabilitation Act should be enacted. · ‘Public causes’ of land acquisition should be redefined and should be reduced to

the minimum. · Provision should be made that after studying the various alternatives of any

scheme the one causing the least displacement should be accepted. · Projects that displace any population for the second time should be stopped. · Landholder should have the final right to give or not to give land for projects that

are prepared with the objective of earning profits. Persons losing land and employment for such projects should be given the status of partners or shareholders.

· The land left with the project, after the project work is complete, should be immediately returned to the displaced.

· Programme should be prepared for completing rehabilitation of the displaced people who were displaced in the past projects.

· Even landless agricultural displaced also should be given at least 5 acres of irrigated land or double the unirrigated agricultural land. Non-agricultural displaced should be given suitable resources for their livelihood.

· Project should be accepted only after the project fulfills certain conditions. · Land should not be acquired without rehabilitation. · Displaced should be given the right to participate with powers from the stage of

formulation of the rehabilitation scheme to its completion.

13. Claim of the displaced on the resources that are acquired or created by the Project and on the benefits generated by the project:

a) A dispute arose between Bihar government and Tata House. Bihar government had fixed new rates of tariff for river waters and it wanted to give Subarnarekha’s

water to Tisco at that rate. Tisco wanted water at the old rate. In order to compel Tisco to pay the enhanced rate, Bihar government stopped discharge of water from Chandil dam. On the other hand, to compel Bihar government to release water from the dam Tisco reduced supply of water to the town, particularly to the residential areas of workers, and held Bihar government guilty for that. To pressurise the government, Tisco started programmes to mobilise its employees against the government and filed a petition in the court. Tisco also claimed its right over the river water. Tisco said that it had got the riparian right on the water of Subarnarekha because the town has been situated on the bank of the river since a long time. With this dispute, the villagers living in villages on the banks of the river since hundreds of years suffered the most. Nobody paid attention towards their condition. The crops of the villages in the area of submergence were submerged and the people living in the lower areas were forced to drink polluted water due to lack of water. VMV intervened in this dispute pleading for the displaced people and the villagers living on the banks of the river. VMV said that it was wrong to submerge the lands of the displaced without rehabilitating them. And therefore demanded from the government to release water from the dam. Challenging the claim of riparian right by the Tisco, VMV said that the villages on the banks have got the primary right on the river water, not Tisco. VMV also demanded that water is being stored by displacing the villagers and so the money received by selling the water should be spent on the rehabilitation of the displaced. Submitting a memorandum to the Chief Minister, demand was made that all the industrial and business undertakings should be made responsible for the rehabilitation and employment of the displaced.

b) Going against the provisions announced by itself in the rehabilitation scheme, the Department of Water Resources of Bihar invited tenders for catching fish in the Chandil and Palna dams. VMV vehemently opposed this and demanded cancellation of the contract. Here it needs to be mentioned that villagers of 10 to 15 villages on the banks of the river viz. Babuchamda, Kali Chamda, Bhisada, Lapsidih, Buridih, Hurlung etc. have been fishing in the dam waters since the beginning and made it their main means of livelihood. In view of the opposition by VMV and villagers’ claim on the fish, the contractors did not come to fish and nobody appeared to bid in the auction in the following years. Rehabilitation movement has made it an issue that the right of the displaced on the fish in the reservoir and share of the displaced in the profits earned from the water of the dam should be legalised. Now VMV is trying to form co-operative societies of the displaced for fishing.

c) The demand being mentioned here has not been directly included in the demands or issues of the rehabilitation movement but attempt has always been made to make the displaced aware about this. VMV has been asking the people not to leave their villages until and unless rehabilitation is complete because the project will not care for them later. Moreover, they have full right on the land before the rehabilitation is complete. Because of their intense relationship with the lands and their awareness that they have natural right on the lands, the villagers continued their hold on the lands. People are cultivating the lands that are not yet submerged and also those submerged lands where water recedes after the rains. The persons, who are settled in a different place leaving their original villages, come to their lands during the agricultural season for cultivation and some people have given those lands on sharecropping. This natural phenomenon that became a routine affair is the consequence of the intervention of the civil society organisation in the matter of governance. The unalienable right of the society and the citizens on the natural resources is the essence of this issue. There is a clear possibility to develop this.

This can become a challenge to the tradition of state’s monopoly on the resources. Because of this potential of the movement, it has become a matter of concern for the administration. Whenever a big meeting is held, officers of civil administration inevitably raise this issue that people are not leaving the lands even after their lands are acquired.

Basing on all the above said details of the different issues, the necessary improvements/changes in the policies and procedures of the projects can be formulated.

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Strategy and Dynamics of Civil Society Actors

It has been said earlier too that separate groups independently conducted activities in the two dam areas of SMP. In both the areas, initially society was organised and mobilised mainly to stop construction of the dam. However, the movement demanded rehabilitation including land for land and employment to one member of each family in both the areas and so there can be confusion as to what were the different issues in the two areas. This confusion arises when one looks into the documents and studies about these movements. But, on digging up into the different forms of calls and programmes of action from the memory of the people associated with the movement, it becomes very clear that the main tone of the aspiration of these movements with continuity was opposition to the dam. After the initial repression, the movement collapsed due to terror and lack of initiative

from the leadership. Later, the second phase could be possible in Chandil only on the demand of rehabilitation. The initial repression adversely affected the movement of the Icha area also but it did not end up like the Chandil movement. Opposition to the dam continued in a particular area by a group of activists and it became vocal and active when the situation was favorable.

The movements in the two areas differed in their dynamism and strategies, and that manifested in the forms of their organizations, the forms and intensity of their programmes of action and their mutual relations and alliances throughout the course of their evolution.

1. Organization

Activities opposing the dam had started in 1974-75 itself in the Chandil area. But that was the period of emergency and so there was no chance of its developing into a movement. It could not be found out as to what was the organisational form of the activities. Programmes with wider participation against the dam started in 1978. The demonstrations and meetings held in the month of March were multi-party in their form. In those meetings, along with the local legislator Ghanashyam Mahato of Forward Block, N.E.Horo of Jharkhand Party and and Shibu Soren of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha also participated. In this very meeting, fast for indefinite period was announced. In one sense, the decision of fast was a programme of a loose alliance of parties. But when the programme came for implementation, it had become a programme of only Forward Block at the level of leadership and mass participation. Thus, initially, a left-oriented electoral party led the movement. Yet, a person rather than the party dominated the movement. During interviews, nobody said that Forward Block led the movement. Everybody said that Ghanashyam Mahato led the movement.

Opposition to the project in the Icha area was not initiated under the leadership of any established party or political leader. Initiative to organise the movement was taken by a team of conscious persons of the villages that were to come under submergence. Gangaram Kalundia, an ex-army man of Indian army, had played the role to giving leadership and organising the team. He was awarded with President’s award for his bravery in war. A local organisation was organised basing on the issue of opposition to the dam – Icha-Kharkai Bandh Sangharsh Samiti. Along with Kalundia, two local overbearing and influential leaders of JMM also participated in the movement.

After the Joyda firing of 1978, there was no mass opposition to the Project for about four and half years. If at all anything was developing during this period it was the alliance between the officers and employees of the project, contractors, Mukhia-Sarpanch and their henchmen, middlemen and bullies at different levels. If seen on the basis of party/organisational background, Congressmen were involved mostly in this alliance. The period of 1981-82 has been a very significant period for the Patkum region. During those days, activities of the local students and youths intensified. An organisation entitled ‘Krantikari Chhatra-Yuva Morcha’ of students and youths evolved. An impressive demonstration was held at Tiruldih before the office of Ichagarh block under the banner of this organisation in 1982 on two demands. One of the main demands of the demonstrators was that more than half of the jobs of SMP should be ensured for the displaced and the local people. The police fired on the demonstration in which two youths died and several persons were injured. This firing did not follow with silence like the Joyda firing. Protest activities continued for some days. But they were not militant. Ultimately, the jerk of the firing turned the direction of the youth organisation in reverse direction. Ultimately, the Krantikari Chhatra-Yuva Morcha died. After that, few isolated actions had taken place by temporary workers at the dam site. It did not have any organisational form. It was a group action for putting pressure on the offices at the dam site. During this period, influence of one leader of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha was growing. This upcoming leader of JMM, Nirmal

Mahato (now dead) played active role on the problems associated with rehabilitation of the displaced also along with other issues. Objective of Nirmal Mahato’s actions of pressurizing the employees and officers of the Project for getting compensation and jobs was to get something else. Because of his continuous association with the villagers and his aggressive type of work, his popularity was continuously increasing and expectations of the displaced from him also were growing. This period remained confined to the expectations of the displaced to get something from a strong personality. However, their expectations were terminated with the murder of Nirmal Mahato in Jamshedpur in 1987.

In 1987 itself, a new organisation of the displaced – Visthapit Mukti Vahini (VMV) – was formed. The Singhbhum unit of Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini had taken the initiative to form VMV. It may be noted that Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini was formed by Loknayak Jaiprakash Narayan, leader of the students’ movement of 1974 as a cadre organisation. The activist of Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini had come in contact with this area since 1982-83. Vahini formed a team of school students. Vahini’s activists tried to organise the villagers against the dam. But the terror of the Joyda firing, further aggravated by the Tiruldih firing, was still alive in the hearts of the villagers. Construction of the dam was fast advancing and process of land acquisition also was going on. People did not believe that the construction of the dam could be stopped. They were mentally not prepared to directly oppose the dam. In such a situation, Vahini made up its mind to launch a movement for rehabilitation so that the impending miseries of the displaced may be stopped at least to certain extent. With sustained efforts, a team of 20-25 young men and two-three middle aged men from 10-12 villages could be developed. With this force, Visthapit Mukti Vahini was formed.

Decision to constitute Visthapit Mukti Vahini was taken with a clear strategy and outlook. It was discussed whether the agitation of the displaced should be conducted directly under the banner of Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini or a separate organisation of the displaced should be formed. During this discussion, the idea evolved that the movement of the displaced can be made participative if an organisation of the displaced itself is constituted. This organisation should be free from the pressures of other organisations, Only with such an organisation, initiative of the displaced can be devloped. Organisational outlook of Sangharsh Vahini also played an effective role in arriving at such a decision. Sangharsh Vahini had already developed the concept that control on mass organisations by a central organisation is a wrong method. During the Bodhgaya Bhumi Mukti Andolan, the ideology of ‘You have to lead your own struggle’ also was evolved.

Attempt was made to involve all the displaced people desirous to participate in the rehabilitation movement in VMV. The ideology and affiliation with any political party was not made the basis for joining the organisation. Despite this, a particular character is seen in the background of the people who joined the organisation. Most of those who joined the organisation were youths and they were not associated with any particular background. Activists associated at the village level with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha also joined. Most of those who joined were supporters of Jharkhand movement. Number of activists and supporters having the Congress background was negligible. It will be proper to mention here that the local people associated with Congress have been generally anti-Jharkhand.

Attempt was made to develop VMV into a membership-based organisation. A membership drive was launched for this. But VMV could never take the shape of a membership-based organisation. Lack of local response and lack of seriousness among the main activists have been the reasons behind this. In this sense, VMV remained more or less an organisation of open participation. In the beginning, for many years there was the system of a convenor, convening committee and area committee. During the later years, its structure was made with managing committee and area committees. This also was decided that Gram Sabhas would be activated in the rehabilitation movement, but it could

not be implemented. Collective activism of the activists remained the main form of the dynamics of the organisation.

Time to time, other organisations also came up in Chandil area. But most of the organisations could not take any definite shape. They were only banners to organise short-term programmes. They did not have the vision of remaining continuously active. In addition to VMV, one more organisation had a clear organisational structure and a long-term commitment. This was formed at the initiative of IPF (now CPI-ML). After remaining active for some years it became ineffective.

After the murder of Gangaram Kalundia in Icha area, there was no organisation active with widespread programmes for about two years. In 1984-85, some persons active in the earlier movement started work in the name of an organisation entitled ‘Icha-Kharkai Bandh Visthapit Sangh’ (Purvi-Kolhan Area). It is obvious from the name that the organisation was no more extensive in its work. After the murder of Kalundia, the stream of opposition to the dam had been slowed down in the Rajbadi area (Rajnagar block) villages. Now only a few selected committed activists were mentally prepared to involve themselves seriously in the anti-dam movement. In this changed situation, in order to save the central issue of the struggle from getting deviated, the new form of the organisation was confined to Kolhan area. From this period, joint organisational efforts were started. An NGO (non-governmental organisation) named Nikhil Bharat Vanvasi Panchayat expressed its desire to associate with the programmes of Icha-Kharkai Bandh Visthapit Sangh and thus both the groups united to run the programmes. In 1985, they parted ways. Again there was a stalemate in the programmes. In 1987, some organisations with the ideology of Total Revolution jointly organised a foot march from Gua to Jamshedpur. During this foot march, these organisations came in contact with Kolhan Raksha Sangh and Icha-Kharkai Bandh Visthapit Sangh. The contact further expanded and all these organisations jointly conducted the new phase of the movement against the Icha dam. These organisations were: Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini, Sampoorna Kranti Manch, Mahila Sangharsh Vahini, Jharkhand Mukti Andolan. These organisations had different configurations. Sangharsh Vahini was a cadre organisation, Sampoorna Kranti Manch was a joint forum of many organisations. Mahila Sangharsh Vahini and Jharkhand Mukti Andolan were loose banners. Persons of common background were in it. Their basic mass base was only that of Icha-Kharkai Bandh Visthapit Sangathan, which was an organisation centered on one issue and open participation. This organisation had committees in the villages and regular meetings used to be held.

2. Forms and impact of the programmes

Certain programmes of movement were similar in both the Chandil and Icha areas and some are different. Item-wise, these programmes are mentioned below:

a) Demonstration and rally (locally and at the state level)b) Dharnac) Fast for indefinite periodd) Gherao of the Project officese) Stopping workf) Stopping taking soil from villages for the damg) Foot march and cycle march(locally and in support of other parallel movements)h) Local organisational conference, Jharkhand level conference, Bihar level

conference and National conference.i) Economic survey of the villages affected by the project and gathering opinion of

the villagers on the Project.j) ‘Go to jail – court arrest’ campaign.k) Anti-dam human chain

l) Desisting entry of project employees into the villages.m) Organising Shahid Mela

The programmes of desisting taking away of soil from the villages near the dam and foot march from one area to other areas in support of parallel movements have been organised by the organisation of the displaced only in the Chandil dam area. ‘Stop work’ agitation was implemented more vigorously in the Icha area than Chandil area. Submission of memorandums to the project officers, other government officers and ministers is a general procedure adopted in peaceful movements and this cannot be termed as an action programme and so it has not been included in the above list.

These programmes can be classified into two categories basing on frequency: 1)Programmes taken up frequently even in normal circumstances; 2) Programmes organised occasionally with special preparations in extraordinary situations, e.g. Stopping work, fast for indefinite period, courting arrest etc.

To understand the effectiveness of these programmes, it will be useful to give instances of some such successful programmes. After the constitution of VMV in the Chandil dam area, it was necessary to defuse the atmosphere of terror in order to draw the people to VMV. It was decided to bring out a rally for that. Curiosity mixed with apprehension was aroused in the minds of the people. A rumour also was spread that there would be firing on the procession. Police force was posted. But finally a very disciplined and impressive procession was brought out. Nothing undesirable happened. A successful procession without any hindrance and repression was taken as a significant phenomenon and people were attracted towards VMV. This was proved useful for expanding the organisation. Once the organisation had announced to stop work. But suddenly work was resumed in the presence of police force. On the occasion, a prominent activist was present on the site. He alone started raising slogans and opposing resumption of work. All the people were stunned for some time. After some time, police surrounded him and beat him up. The women workers present there got him released from the hands of the police. After that, women police was called from Jamshedpur and work was completed overnight. This incident became a talk of the area and VMV’s reputation as a militant organisation was established. If strategy is prepared meticulously effective programmes can be evolved in the rural area also. This became clear from the programme to oppose taking soil and sculptures from the villages. To erect mud wall for Chandil dam, soil was being taken away from a nearby village Ruiyani. The poject had taken it for granted that as land was acquired villager had now legal right on the earth there. The villagers challenged this and stopped the project people from taking soil from the village. The villagers said that they would not allow taking soil until and unless all the people of the village were rehabilitated. Similarly, an attempt was being made to shift old statues from a village to a secured place. Under the leadership of VMV, the villagers stopped them. The villagers said that the Project management did not need to have concern for the statues, they had been protecting them since hundreds of years. Six persons had sit on fast for indefinite period in 1991. The displaced extended widespread sympathy and assistance to the programme. Hundreds of people used to come to the venue of fast from villages and extend solidarity. Money and rice were collected and given by villagers for the persons staying overnight at the venue of the fast in solidarity with the fasters. (It may be noted that similar type of enthusiasm and participation was seen during the Joyda fast in 1978 also.). A few days after this fast, a big procession was taken out. People then said that never such a big procession was brought out in Chandil. After this, confidence of the people grew in VMV’s strength. With the seven-day foot march from Joyda to Lohajimi (Subarnarekha to Koel-karo), a good beginning of co-ordination was made among the groups struggling in Jharkhand region against incoherent development and displacement. When the government had announced construction of Koel-Karo project, a foot march was brought out with the slogan ‘Subarnarekha gives the call – Stop work of Koel-Karo’ in solidarity with the people of Koel-Karo region. After the

conclusion of the foot-march, a seminar was organised in Ranchi and a meeting of the struggling groups was held for co-ordination among them. When, in 1993, in collusion with the middlemen the police beat up the leading activists of VMV in police lock-up, a torchlight procession went around in villages and effigies of the oppressing Mukhia and Officer-in-charge of police station were burnt. With these programmes, people became hostile against the police and the police administration became concerned. The DSP apologised for the actions of officer-in-charge and urged to stop such programmes. Legislator’s goons had made a barbarous attack on a leading activist of the movement in 1996. In protest against this, people held a demonstration test against the above said incident which made the people feel that VMV was not going to be suppressed by the terror of the goons of the legislator.

The programme of conducting economic survey of the villages and collecting the opinion of the villagers on the Project in Icha area in 1987-88 had played an effective role in organising the movement with a new spirit. With this, the new organisation of the movement developed direct contact with every village. Even today the leading activists of the movement remember a gherao programme before the headquarters of the Project at Adityapur with nostalgia. In fact, that was a Dharna programme. Quite a large number of people had gathered in that Dharna. A large number of policemen were posted. Attitude of the police force was quite aggressive and they seemed to be prepared to do anything untoward. When the common villagers started getting frightened, the leadership came up to tackle the situation, with mike in their hands. People were told that they believed in peaceful movement and they would even lay down their lives rather than leaving the place. As planned earlier, Dharna continued up to the end of office time. But then the programme of action was changed from Dharna to Gherao. The Gherao continued up to late night. None of the officers was allowed to come out from his room. Getting this information, the Deputy Commissioner came to the spot. She chided the agitators – “You people are unnecessarily harassing the women and children.” Pat came the reply, not from the men but from the women – “If you are really so much concerned for us why don’t you cancel the Icha dam? The dam is going to ruin us. We have not been dragged by anybody to this place, we have come on our own.” Ultimately, the Gherao was terminated on a positive assurance of the Deputy Commissioner. With the effect of this programme, militancy of the common villagers heightened a lot. In order to confront Project’s repeated attempts to start construction work the movement decided to launch ‘stop the work’, a programme of peaceful resistance at the dam site for indefinite period. The leading persons of the villages gathered at the dam site along with their families and animals. They used to eat, graze their animals and sleep there. Every work was stopped. Women used to lie down on the road to stop trucks and jeeps from moving on the road. Ultimately, the police administration came into action and arrested the agitators and destroyed their belongings. Overnight news spread to villagers and ‘go to jail’ movement was started from the next day. After continuously arresting the people for five days the administration stopped the arrest campaign. 450 persons were arrested in the campaign including 300 women. Courting arrest by women was a totally new occurrence in this area.

3. Leadership

Some noteworthy points have been observed with regard to leadership and ability to take initiative.

· Although the initial anti-dam movement of the Icha area had wide mass participation, its leadership was centered on the sharp and militant personality of Gangaram Kalundia. The image that emerges from what has been said in the interviews about him is that of a man of an aggressive work style who by aggressive and armed demonstration created terror in the hearts of the persons associated with the Project.

· After the murder of Kalundia, there was no such leadership, which was able to organise and lead the struggle. Despite the police repression, he local activists were determined on their anti-dam attitude and were able to maintain opposition to the dam in the minds of the local people, but that was not enough to translate the opposition into a movement of resistance. This spirit of hostility has been present in the cultural tradition of the community at the individual and social level. People did not accept that they could be dispossessed of their lands. They have an intense attachment with their lands, their village and their environment. During the later phase, movement emerged only when an alliance developed between them and groups coming from outside.

· Although the first phase of the movement in Chandil was conducted under the banner of a political party with a wide mass base and the local people had participated in it on a large scale, the movement was totally run under the leadership centered around an individual. There characteristic of individual leadership was worse than what it was in Icha. There was no other strong activist then in Chandil other than Ghanashyam Mahato. One can conclude from the statements given by persons, who participated in the fast then and were arrested, that the individualistic leadership of the movement was also irresponsible and neither it had the desire to confront the sudden repression nor the ability. The leadership was capable to provoke fury among the people but it did not have the skill to sustain it and carry it on.

It has been heard that in a big mass meeting, held before launching the fast programme, Ghanashyam Mahato had called the people to cut the limbs of the project employees. When, a day before the firing, the police force had came to arrest the fasters, Mr.Mahato had disappeared just at the time of the arrest. No programme was organised to protest against the firing. He did not even go to meet the arrested persons in the jail. The arrested fasters had to fight their legal battle on their own. It may be noted that Mr.Mahato was the legislator of Ichagarh constituency then.

· Krantikari Chhatra-Yuva Morcha did not work for organising the displaced and agitating for them. They had raised the demand of employment for the local people and the displaced. Due to their youth, the youths were naturally violent but they were not matured enough to maintain the continuity of the movement with different programmes of action to sustain the mass base. This leadership did not have any grasp of the main problem and they were more interested in getting jobs.

· Leaders of some political parties had conducted some temporary programmes with their own initiative. But their programmes were often inspired by their vested interests and they used the issues of getting compensation and contracts from the Project as means for their objective.

· On their own initiative, villagers had conducted some effective programmes. The programmes were held at SMP headquarter. Youth teams of 2-3 villages had initiated such programmes and they associated the villagers of 8 to 10 villages with these programmes. An independent banner was prepared for these programmes. They maintained continuity for a short period. All these programmes were motivated by the aspiration to get jobs in the Project. These youths said that VMV’s movement had inspired them.

· All the above leaderships were local. There was combination of both local and outside elements in the leadership of the VMV movement. Committee was formed to run the movement. This committee holds its meetings for deciding its programmes. But actual leadership consists of a team of two or three persons. They included both locals and outsiders. Many times persons in the leadership took decisions individually instead of collective decisions. This used to be questioned by other persons in the leadership and such decisions were reviewed. It was seen that most of the persons who remained continuously active in the leadership were those who were associated with Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini and had passed through the process of ideological training. Tribals are in majority in the present leadership whereas non-tribals were in majority earlier. Traditionally, persons from non-tribal communities have been in the socio-political leadership in this area. This leadership proved weak in leading action programmes like ‘stop-work’ to the culmination. This leadership has got the vision to develop the changing dimensions of the rehabilitation movement. And this leadership has been sensitive and active in co-ordinating the struggles of Jharkhand also.

4. Alliances

1) With civil society organisations· Firstly, let us see the position of partnership among the CSOs present in the area

of operation. In Icha area, never two different groups led any movement on the issue of dam. From the beginning to the end, at a given time, only a single organisational group directed the movement. In the beginning, the movement was directed only under the banner of Icha-Kharkai Bandh Sangharsh Samiti. Two local leaders of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha had played the role of giving assistance. When Kalundia was murdered, members of the organisation had gone to Bagun Sumbroi, MP,(He has been changing parties from Jharkhand Party, to Janata Party to Congress etc.) to take his help in finding out the whereabouts of Kalundia. But he evaded. Struggle again started in 1984-85, under a new banner ‘Icha-Kharkai Bandh Visthapit Sangh’. The movement was led in association with an NGO named Nikhil Bharat Vanvasi Panchayat, formed by the people of socialist stream. But dissentions developed in this alliance within one and half years. During a demonstration by the main activists of Visthapit Sangh held in Patna, it was felt that the men of Vanvasi Panchayat, instead of taking the problem of the people seriously, wanted to use Sangh’s mass base for their own growth. During this very period, Sangh’s relation with Krishna Mardi, a JMM leader from Rajbadi area, became tense. Krishna Mardi wanted the people to abandon their struggle against the dam and accept compensation. In 1985, the Mukhias and Mundas of 99 villages demanded the Prime Minister through the MP to cancel the Icha-Kharkai dam. Bagun Sumbroi, MP, also separately made this demand from the Prime Minister. After 1987, many CSOs unitedly conducted the movement. Two NGOs from outside joined the movement. Later, internal contradiction developed between them and this contradiction affected the Icha-Kharkai Bandh Visthapit Sangh also. After the movement stopped in 1993, there developed a rift in the leadership of Visthapit Sangh.

During the later phase in Chandil area, though VMV was the most influential organisation with continuity, it cannot be said that it was the only organisation. Never any co-operative co-ordination developed among these organisations that were formed for the solution of the problem of the displaced. Though they were never at loggerheads directly, they acted separately with a feeling of rivalry. Co-ordination was impossible between

some organisations due to the difference in their commitments and continuity. There was no rivalry between the organisation of the displaced formed by IPF and VMV in the matter of commitment and continuity. Contradiction between them was due to the organisational background of the leaderships. And there was also a difference in their attitude towards the relation with the Project administration. VMV held that there would be a relationship of co-operation and antagonism with the Project and the government depending on the situation. IPF considered such co-operation undesirable. And that is why once or twice IPF alleged that VMV was in league with the Project administration. VMV had usually a relation of co-operation with the local activists of JMM. But, due to the vested interests of JMM leadership, VMV had differing relations with it.

· The position of partnership between VMV and Icha-Kharkai’s organisation of the displaced – There was no long term alliance between these two organisations although leaderships of both the movements were acquainted with each other since a long time and they have common background. On special occasions, they co-operated with each other and supported each other. Lack of co-ordination between them has two main reasons. A dispute had emerged on the issue of constituting a co-ordination (in the form of Sampoorna Kranti Manch) in the Bihar unit of Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini and there was a split. The activists with the background of Sangharsh Vahini active in both the said areas were involved in two different issues and the dominant leaderships of both the organisations differed in their approach to rehabilitation movement. The leadership of the Icha-Kharkai Visthapit Sangh considered the rehabilitation movement a compromise and surrender whereas the leadership of VMV saw an element of revolutionism even in the rehabilitation movement. VMV publicly raised the demand to cancel the Icha dam but the Icha-Kharkai Bandh Visthapit Sangh never publicly supported the rehabilitation movement of Chandil. Despite this, there have been occasions when both the organisations came together supporting each other’s cause. Once, a joint delegation of both the organisations met with the Minister of Water Resources. Second time, ten or so organisations demonstrated in Patna and submitted a memorandum to the chief minister and participated in a conference. In the memorandum submitted to the minister for water resources, two demands were made: 1) the Icha-Kharkai dam should be cancelled and 2) the displaced of the Chandil dam should be properly rehabilitated at the earliest. When demonstrated before the chief minister, then also there were two demands: 1) All such programmes that are not accepted by the local people like Koel-Karo, Icha etc. should be cancelled. 2) The displaced persons of Chandil, Kutku and other projects should be provided with appropriate and similar rehabilitation. Apart from this, the people of both the organisations have been assisting each other in special programmes and critical situations.

· With the CSOs outside the SMP area – In this regard also, some clear differences have been observed in the form of alliances in both the areas. Icha organisation had more close and regular relationship with the organisations and personalities at the national level. B.D.Sharma, former Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Castes Commissioner, Medha Patkar and the representatives of the Narmada Bachao Andolan have been visiting both the areas but they have more natural and continuous relationship with the organisation of the Icha area.

The representatives of the Icha area have been participating in the national programmes like Anand Van meeting (a national meeting of the environmentalists, activist groups and change-oriented groups against the destructive development policy of the government). In these programmes of the movements, B.D.Sharma, Medha Patkar, Baba Amte, Vikas Amte, Vandana Shiva and Smitu Kothari of Jan Vikas Andolan have been participating. Representatives of the movements in 10 states had attended the anti-displacement and anti-big dam movements organised by this movement. The leadership of this movement has been having regular and assisting relationship with ‘PRIA’.

The Chandil movement has been in regular touch with the Koel-Karo anti-dam

movement, anti-Auranga dam Movement, Kutku rehabilitation movement, Netarhat anti-firing range movement, Bokaro rehabilitation movement, Jadugora anti-radiation movement, Surangi reservoir displaced movement etc. They have been helping each other and holding mutual discussions. Representatives of VMV have been attending the programmes of these movements and the representatives of those movements have been attending the functions of VMV. VMV has played a pioneering role in evolving a co-ordination among these movements. Initially a co-ordination was formed by the name ‘Visthapan Virodhi Andolan’ (Movement Against Displacement). This attempt developed into '‘Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch.” After continuing for some years, this co-ordination was dissipated. However, some organisations of this co-ordination continue to maintain contact among themselves even today. There are some ideological trends and organisational positions behind the dissipatiion of the co-ordination. There was no regular and capable team committed towards this co-ordination. In normal situations, these movements have a tendency to remain self-centered and localised. For another reason, there has been excessive emotional attachment towards the identity of community. The above said movement was mainly led and participated by tribal communities. There have been elements from both non-tribal and tribal communities in the leadership of VMV(a few were non-Jharkhandi also). Almost all the leadership has been under the influence of Vahini and they did not associate the names of their castes or communities with their names. Most of the tribal leaders did not feel at home with it. This leadership considered the community titles as basic for their identity and they had intolerance towards inter-communal social relations. They looked at the above said movements as tribal movements. They frequently debated with the representatives of VMV on these questions and a difference of opinion always remained. Here it needs to be mentioned that the above tendency has been there more among those educated youths that were not directly associated with any movement.

VMV’s relations have been of two types at the national level. It had a regular relationship with Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini, Gandhmardan Suraksha Andolan, Arch-Vahini -led Sardar Sarovar Punarvas Andolan because all of them belonged to the same background. Another relationship was that of mutual help and assistance. This relationship has been mainly with the NGOs of Delhi. They include PRIA, Public Interest Research Group, Other Media, Delhi Forum, ISI, Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti, MARG, IWGIA, AVARD etc.

There has not been any direct alliance at the international level. On one side, the issues and problems of SMP were publicised through the above said institutions. On the other, through persons from other countries visiting the Project area. Direct contact was established with World Bank when Bank’s team visited the SMP area and also at its Delhi office. Arch (Gujarat) helped in it. There used to be contact with Environmental Defense

Fund, Rainforest Information Center, Survival International etc. at the international level. Due to some apprehensions the leadership of VMV never took much interest in international alliances. There have been incidents where such an organisation or person directly represented the movement without even mentioning the actual organisation that is active in the movement. Once, Medha Patkar directly wrote to the President of World Bank on the miserable condition of the displaced of the Subarnarekha Project but there was not even a mention of VMV or Icha-Kharkai Bandh Visthapit Sangh in it although she got all the information from those very activist organisations. [Source: Subarnarekha Project – An untold Tragedy –An open letter to the New President of the World Bank –By Medha patkar – INTACH].

The following organisations had jointly organised a joint rally and a conference at the state level in 1992: Koel-Karo Jan Sangathan, Visthapit Mukti Vahini, Icha-Kharkai Bandh Visthapit Sangh, Auranga Bandh Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti, Kutku Doob Kshetra Sangharsh Samiti, Chhatr-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini, Hul Jharkhand Kranti Dal, CPIML (PCC), Janmukti Sangharsh Vahini, Kisan Majdoor Sangathan. A seminar was organised on National Rehabilitation Policy in Delhi in which delegates from 16 organisations and 13 institutions from 10 states had participated. Simlipal Suraksha Parishad, Aravali Bachao Andolan, Tarun Bharat Sangh, Gandhi Shanti Pratishthan, Deshkal, Vikas Bharati also were represented along with the majority of the above said organisations.

2) Alliance with the government – One can get a glimpse of this relationship from the details given in Chapter II. Here it will be enough to say that in general there was no situation of alliance with the government. VMV has been holding talks with the chief minister, minister for water resources, minister-in-charge for Singhbhum district, minister for labour &employment etc. Icha-Kharkai Bandh Visthapit Sangh did not carry on such a process of holding talks. The dialogues between VMV and the ministers cannot be called only a relation between the minister and the delegation. Such a dialogue has been held only during the tenure of a non-Congress government. Because of the common background of the ’74 movement there has been an acquaintance. However, such relations did not yield any result favourable to the displaced except the formulation of the Revised Rehabilitation Policy.

In connection with the incidents of assaults by goons and police repression on the activists of the movement, help used to be taken from acquaintances in the government to pressurise the local administration. Delegation of VMV used to even meet the top police officer of the state. Vahini’s identity used to be of help in this matter. Though desirable help was not available, it helped to certain extent.

Once, during the term of a particular Administrator of SMP, there were regular favorable relations with him. The said administrator had an understanding of the problem of the displaced and he was sensitive towards them, and he was interested to maintain a relation of co-operation and dialogue with the VMV. This co-operative relationship yielded some achievements. In the second phase, there was almost no bribery and dishonesty in the issue of employment. To maintain vigilance, a task force was constituted with the employees who co-operated with VMV and many incomplete tasks were completed. But it was not just a relationship of help. The original stream of pressures and opposition too were continued simultaneously. This relationship was not normal for other organisations engaged in movements and it could also create confusion. Such organisations held that any type of favourable relationship with the Administration of the Project was wrong, it is a compromise. VMV held that mutual help should be taken in favourable situations in order to fulfill the tasks of rehabilitation.

3) Alliance with the community – The displaced people are a part of a socio-regional community. In this form, continuous relation with the community was inevitable. As for co-

ordination with the traditional institutions in the community and their representatives, this did not happen in chandil because there were no such institutions playing a social role. Regular contact was maintained with the Mankis and Mundas in the Icha area from the beginning and attempt was made to associate them with the movement.

5) Utilisation of media and information

The movements in both the areas have made use of media seriously. They tried their best to make use of their acquaintances in the media world and take their help. However, access was made to the print media at the state and national level also but its frequency compared to the local print media was very less. Due to limited resources, the Chandil movement concentrated only on print media. It has been more effective than Icha movement in this regard due to the presence of their activists in Jamshedpur and better contacts. Because of continuous attempts by VMV, the SMP and the situation in Chandil dam have been a regular news item in newspapers. Video films have been prepared on Icha movement and the programmes of action also used to be covered by videography.

The movement at Chandil worked hard to gather information about the Project and despite the opaque nature of the Project VMV has been successful in extracting the documents from different sources. The facts gathered from these documents have been used well to highlight the incoherence and irresponsible actions of the Project.

Despite their capability in the matter of publishing handbills, statements and news items, the movements have been slack in publishing books and booklets on movement and ideas connected with it. Lack of discipline in the matter of writing and sustained work has been one of the reasons apart from shortage of funds.

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Socio-Political Environment

1. People’s representatives, administration, government and the policy

There have been changes in these during the movement. But normally there was no difference in the policy of the project and the condition of the displaced due to these changes.

The Members of Parliament did not do anything more than writing a letter to the Prime Minister or raising a question in the parliament. The legislator did not intervene in the Project anything beyond getting employment to his own men or share in the booty. Relatively, the legislators visited the area more often. The present legislator has been in touch with the people more than the previous legislators. But his supporters have been openly extorting share in the compensation money payable to the displaced. They have

assaulted the activists of VMV and tried to suppress them by terror. Mukhias and Sarpanches have been indifferent towards the problems of the displaced; at the most, they appended their signatures in case of need. Many Mukhias have been presenting fraudulent claimants in place of the real displaced and thus usurping the compensation money through such claimants. They did not prove themselves true representatives of the people.

The Project administration and the civil administration have also been acting in prevalent system. Their senior officers have not been paying attention to the demands of the displaced and did not make any conscious effort to fulfil them. The Project administration did not even completely implement the rehabilitation programme set by the Project itself. Only during the term of a particular Administrator, relatively more seriousness was shown in implementing the rehabilitation programme. But, even during that period, all the provisions mentioned in the plan were not implemented. During his tenure, a technical fault was observed in the estimates of the Project, but despite pointing out at that the fault was not reviewed. Not only the Administration was insensitive towards the demand of the Icha area, on the contrary, cunning ways were adopted to obtain the consent of the Mankis and Mundas on the dam. During the terms of two deputy commissioners of the district, serious attempt was made to provide employment to the displaced in government departments other than the Project.

2. Relation between poltical society and civil society

Despite changes in the governments, there was no significant difference in connection with the Project. Joyda firing occurred in 1978 during the rule of Janata Party, while the Tiruldih firing took place during the Congress rule. Action was not taken against the guilty during the rule of both the governments. Later, situation changed to such an extent during the rule of Janata Dal that VMV could have direct dialogues with the ministers. Earlier, such dialogues were not possible between the organisations engaged in the movement and the ministers. A more favourable rehabilitation policy (in 1990) was formulated during the rule of the first government of the Janata Dal.

Although a few leading members of Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini have formed VMV, an organisation of the displaced people, but VMV cannot be identified as a branch of Chhatra-Yuva Sanagharsh Vahini. Never the committees of Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini decide what action VMV should or will take. VMV always worked as an independent organisation.

There were basic differences between the ideologies of Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini and Janata Party’s initial form (in 1977). Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini followed the ideology of partyless political work while Janata Party was engaged in power politics as a political party. Janata Party was not committed to the ideology of Total Revolution. However, both were active in a similar historical situation. Both were born from the ’74 movement. Leaders of both the organisations were active in the ’74 movement. So they were acquainted with each other. Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini exerted certain moral influence on the leadership of Janata party in the early days.

Even during the times of Janata Party’s government in the state, government’s attitude was not favourable towards the movement of Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini. This is true but this is not related with Chandil or Icha areas’ movements because those days Vahini was not associated with this movement. Later, during the rule of Laloo Prasad, the movement conducted with the participation of the persons with the background of Vahini had to suffer administrative neglect and repression in both the areas, Chandil and Icha.

From the experiences of Chandil and Icha, one can make an analysis of the dynamism and dimensions of the relationship between a political society and civil society

acquainted with each other. There happens to be contradictions between the interests of the political society and civil society in the matter of policies, rights and processes. Basic point of contradiction lies on who will have how much power. The political society needs status quo in order to maintain its political power whereas the civil society aspires for a change to bring betterment in its condition. Because of this basic contradiction, struggle continues between the two societies.

Yet, acquaintance provides certain advantages also. They can find a situation for mutual discussion on different issues. Fright and excessiveness of state repression becomes less and administrative protection can be obtained to certain extent from attacks by anti-social elements on the movement. Such advantages were received to certain extent by the movements in both the areas.

3. Collectivism present in the society and capacity to take initiative

One can see a living and advanced form of collectivism in the Icha area. People belonging to a particular communal identity and communal ties are predominant in number in this area. Collectivism is an integral part of their lives, not an expedient to confront an emergency. According to need, the entire village and the entire family has been involving itself in the movement.

The characteristic of collectivism is weak in the Chandil area. People with different communal identities live here. They have certain similarities and also some differences. Tendency of taking decisions and acting collectively in the matters of going to offices, taking compensation, shifting residence etc. has not been there in them.

Movement had emerged in Icha area from inside the society i.e. the movement had evolved there with the collective initiative of the people. Collective form of the initiative (with regard to movement) was observed in Chandil only in a few villages like Janum-Palashdih, Hundrudih. The collective initiative was taken by the youths with the desire to get employment and this initiative was inspired by the environment created by VMV’s movement. There were a good number of independent initiatives. About 800 cases were filed in connection with compensation and quite a good number of persons have purchased agricultural land with their own planning. Collective approach was noticed among the people of Chandil with regard to constructing places of worship and organising annual Puja celebrations. People were so active in this collective effort that the residents of rehabilitation colonies, unknown to each other, collectively constructed Gram Than (place of worship).

4. Attitude towards market and service

The people of Chandil area and Icha’s Rajbadi area have deep interest in service. People living in the villages of Kolhan area do not seem to be so much interested in service but attraction towards employment is increasing in the new generation. Except the few traditional communities, the people in general look at market and trade with apprehension and disbelief. People say that they are not much acquainted with the world of money and sale & purchase for there is risk in it and that they will be cheated and looted in that world. However, they are not much acquainted with the world of service also but they are not afraid with it. So it can be conclusively said that people want relatively permanent avenues of livelihood. Confidence to confront the risk of uncertainty of profit and loss of the market has not yet developed in them.

5. Facilitating factors

1) Gujarat government’s G.O. with regard to rehabilitation of the displaced of Sardar Sarovar Project was the biggest facilitating factor for the rehabilitation movement of VMV. In the said G.O., there was a provision of giving a minimum of 5 acres of irrigated agricultural land of choice to the displaced including the landless. After this G.O. was implemented, VMV’s demand of land for land took a concrete shape. After this, morale and self-confidence of the activists of VMV was further boosted. Here this also should be noted that VMV’s leadership had an old relationship with the CSO active for the rehabilitation of the displaced of the Sardar Sarovar Project. This also can be said here that VMV’s relation with the said group active on the issue of rehabilitation in Gujarat has been an important facilitating factor.

2) In both the areas, a clear difference is noticeable in the repressive attitude of the police towards the movement between the initial stage of the movement and the later stage. In the initial stages, incidents of murder and firing took place. During the later stage, there were incidents of false cases and arrests. 2-3 factors determine this difference. Firstly, the movement was very disciplined and committed, and totally peaceful. Secondly, the organisations associating with the local people were state-level and national-level organisations. In both the places, the state and national level organisations that associated with the movement had their roots in the ’74 movement which continues to exert a psychological and moral pressure on the political and administrative machinery of the state. Because of direct connections with organisations and personalities recognised at state and national level also, antagonism decreased in the attitude of the police.

3) Condition of quite a big section of the displaced people of Chandil worsened compared to the pre-project period. This misery is likely to continue for long. Yet, compared to the conditions of the displaced of most of the other projects, here condition of the displaced does not seem to be so bad. One of its reasons is the revised rehabilitation policy, specially prepared for the SMP, and recognition to new nucleus families and payment of house construction grants on the basis of the said policy. But the bigger cause is that there is a tendency in the displaced to maintain control on their lands and on the fish in the reservoir. A big section of the displaced purchased agricultural land in a planned manner and settled in places other than rehabilitation colonies. Except a few persons, all other persons who have taken compensation for the acquired lands continue to keep the lands under their possession.

6. Obstacles

To speak the truth, the outlook basing on which the decision of constructing the project was taken has been the biggest obstacle for the interests of the people. In addition to these, there have been many major obstacles in the path of CSOs’ movement/intervention.

I)This has been repeatedly noticed in the previous chapters that the biggest obstacle has been at the level of policy. There have been major incongruities in the formulation of the Project, process of land acquisition and provisions of rehabilitation. Not only this, the method of implementation also is discrepant and defective. Therefore, this Is certain that people would not have got even this. The corrupt working system entrenched in the structure of the Project is the biggest obstacle. Even after identifying the fault and the culprit, because of lack of accountability to correct it, not only the corruption continued untouched, it goes on increasing.

ii) The psychology of the common people in Chandil area also has been a major hindrance. There are two types of this mentality: One is the tendency to always depend on others. The person does not become active even to solve one’s own problems; one expects others/other organisations to solve their problems. Such tendency has been noticed again

and again. Because of this, mass resistance with the participation of the people does not become possible and an environment favourable to the middlemen is created. Even majority of the people with self-initiative has the tendency to remain self-centred and serve selfish interests instead of evolving collective efforts. Many people have on many occasions exhibited the tendency to profit by illegal means. There have been cases where even persons seemingly honest and socially active had in collusion with project employees or middlemen claimed possession of government lands and taken money from the Project for non-existent houses.

Iii) In the village society Icha area, existence of separate groups has not been noticed but the village society of Chandil area has been multi-communal and its social life has been centred on different communities. Only occasionally, tradition of collectivism has been observed among them. Because of this divided condition of the society, it has been difficult to forge an organised collective force against displacement or for rehabilitation.

iv) Even before the movement started, a broker culture was evolving under the leadership of Mukhias and local leaders having Congress background. This group has been active in favour of the construction of the dam from the beginning. Presence of middlemen in the Chandil area has been the biggest of impediment in the development of an effective and successful movement.

Number of such brokers has been negligible in Icha but there too the activities of such middlemen affected the movement. Leaders of the movement say that the police used to get information about the whereabouts of Gangaram Kalundia from a local broker.

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Factors behind different directions of Icha and Chandil and evaluation of VMV’s approach to the movement

In both the dam areas of the Subarnarekha Multi-purpose Project, the civil society actors initially intervened on the issue of ‘No dam’ only. During the later phase, the issues differed between the two areas. Movement continued on the demand of ‘No dam’ in Icha dam area while the movement was concentrated on the demand of Rehabilitation in the Chandil dam area. It is expected to find from an analysis of the study why despite uniformity in the Project and similarity of the issues in the beginning, the movement proceeded in different directions in the two areas during the later phase. Dynamics of any movement happens to be a complicated phenomenon. Movement’s direction and dynamism is affected by many factors. It is ridiculous to assign any single cause to this or to make a simplistic analysis.

Here one needs to recall that the local people started opposing the construction of the dam in Chandil area earlier than the people in Icha area did. Opposition to the Project started in Chandil area in 1978 and it began in Icha area in 1981. After people’s protest against the Project passed through a standstill for three years in Chandil area, activities of the CSOs started in the Icha area.

Let us look into the factors that caused the movement to proceed in different directions in the two areas.

This has been stated in other places also of this report that the historical, political and cultural backgrounds of the areas differ from each other. There has been a consistent tradition of fighting against outside aggression in a big part of the Icha area. Even since the time of the British rule, there has been an autonomous and effective social-administrative-political system in this area. The region of Kolhan has been administered in accordance with the Wilkinson Rules and Munda-Manki system. There has been a strong awareness of their rights on the natural resources and their lands among the people. There was a struggle against the British in certain part of the Chandil area also but it was not consistent like the Kolhan area. There was Jamindari system in almost the entire Chandil area. It has been the dominating thinking in the Chandil area that the natural resources in the area belonged to the government. The people in the Kolhan area thought that they themselves governed in their region whereas the people in Chandil area consider the government the Mai-bap. There was greater potential to oppose the Project in Icha area compared to the Chandil area due to the factors of resistance to outside intervention, autonomous socio-political system to certain extent and awareness of the right on the natural resources.

The communal form of the population of the Icha area also was favourable for building up mass resistance and its continuation. Almost three-fourth of the population of the Icha area is constituted by the single community of ‘Ho’ tribe, particularly in the Kolhan area. Number of people belonging to other communities was less in Icha area compared to the Chandil area. Tribal population is much less in Chandil area than the Icha area. Moreover.the tribal population includes 2-3 tribes in Chandil area. Apart from this, there are quite a number of other communities with small numbers. So the natural unity and collectivism among the people was more in Icha area than the Chandil area.

Here, one needs to minutely ponder seriously over certain aspects related to collectivism and unity. It is an almost accepted fact that there is more collectivism in the tribal communities than the non-tribals and the collective actions are more intense. This is nothing self-evident nor it is any universal truth. There are objective reasons for it. Right from the village to the regional level, there is an institutionalised system in the tribal society which gets activated in times of special social and judicial needs. In whichever tribe this system was slackened, collectivism was eroded. Moreover, it has also been noticed that more is the number of identities and communities marrying within the community in a region, less is the collectivism/unity in that region. It is a quite difficult and complex job to consolidate them into an active and strong collective. Even if it is accomplished, it takes a pretty long process of united and participative action. This is true not only in the non-tribal communities but it is equally true among the different tribal communities also because there is a clear social separation between them and there is no institutionalised social process of inter-communal collectivism among them also. This fact is usually noticed in the tribal and dalit movements.

That means, despite the same or similar interests, collective efforts and unity is not easily achieved quickly among groups of different social identities. Caste and tribal distinctions impede the process of evolving a collective action. Even if interests don’t clash, the social, economic and political aspirations of the communities further impede

the process of evolving collective efforts. This problem was there in Chandil also. There was no direct clash in the interests of the communal groups but their interests and aspirations were diverse. Trading communities were not so attached to their lands as the Santhals and Mahatos do. The youths of Mahato community had intense desire to get jobs and to interact with the market. But it was not so with the Santhals. Political allegiances of the communities also differed.

Collectivism is also affected by the personality of the leadership. People of a community generally tend to get involved in the activities led by an established and recognized person of that community.

Since the beginning,there has also been difference between the two areas in the forces having definite attitudes towards the Project. The ex-MLA and other leaders of Congress party were in favour of the dam project in Chandil area. Most of the Mukhias and Sarpanches of the Chandil area were of Congress background. During interviews, the people repeatedly said that the construction of the dam was started in Chandil area with the efforts of Dhananjay Mahato, ex-MLA of Congress. The Raja of Ichagarh also was attached to Congress and he was also elected as MLA. There is a talk in the area that the Raja and Dhananjay Mahato had obtained much more compensation for their lands than it was due through various illegal manipulations. The Mukhias did a lot of manipulations in the matter of compensation due to the displaced persons and grabbed a part of it. But in the Icha area, there was no political force acting in favour of the dam.

There was also difference in the construction work for the dam. Work on construction of residential colony and construction of dam had started in chandil much before it began in Icha area. Residential colony was constructed in Icha area 2-3 years after it was done in Chandil. Initial attempt to dam the stream of the river was started in Icha area about 7-8 years after it was done in Chandil. Even that was done half-heartedly giving priority to construction of the Chandil dam. So the situation was less adverse for the people of Icha compared to Chandil. Opposition to the Project happens to be less difficult in the beginning than to oppose during the construction of the dam.

There has also been difference in the character of the civil society actors in the initial stage in both the areas and also in the timing and form of state repression. A leader & legislator of a political party, Forward Block, and his supporters led the opposition to the Project. The dam was opposed in Icha under the leadership of an independent group that emerged from the society without any political allegiance. Certain militant leaders of a political party (not the party itself) had assisted the opposition. That means the activists of a political party took the initiative of the initial resistance to the Project in Chandil whereas actors of a civil society initiated the resistance in the Icha area.

There was state repression on the initial local resistance in both the areas. But in Icha area the police took away the leader of the agitation from the people and killed him in isolation. In Chandil area, the fasters were arrested on the first day in the presence of a big crowd and on the next day itself brazenly firing was made on the people trying to reorganise fast. Kalundia was murdered in Icha area after a round of several programmes of mass protest whereas firing was made within a month of the beginning of mass protest, just in the second programme itself. Because of the cruel repression in the very beginning, terror spread among all the people.

The initial leadership of the Chandil area proved very weak in the matter of commitment and militancy. After the firing (the Joyda firing), neither the leadership

organised any programme in protest against the repression nor took care of the arrested persons or the relatives of deceased. Consequently, mass resistance to the Project ceased. On the other hand, supporters of the dam, already present in the scene, continued to grow stronger during the period of the stagnation of the movement. Corrupt machinery of middlemen formed in the entire area with the collusion between the Project people and the local Congress leaders. After a period of stagnation of 4 years, there was an attempt of revival by some youths. A demonstration was organised under the leadership of a newly formed local youth organisation Krantiari Chhatra Yuva Morcha. Demand related to SMP also was raised in this demonstration. The youths demanded employment for the displaced and the local youths in the Project. This demonstration was not mainly centered on Project and neither there was any intiative of the displaced in the demonstration nor there was any desire in the youths to evolve a movement of the displaced. The ideological approach of ‘No dam’ also was not there in the programme. It was a demonstration on the broad demands of the area. Despite this, had programmes of action been continued by this organisation it would have helped evolve a social stir and the displaced people could have become active with it. But this programme also became victim of state repression causing two deaths. The leadership of this organisation also failed to organise widespread protest against the repression and after one or two small protests the organisation was dissipated.

As for continuity of mass resistance to the Project, situation was different in the two areas. After the murder of Gangaram Kalundia, though widespread activity against the Project stopped activities continued at the village level to organise people and keep the movement alive. In this sense, continuity of the activities of the civil society actors was maintained despite a reduction in its intensity and spread of the movement. In Chandil area, there was a gap of 7-8 years in the movement after the Joyda firing. In the real sense, attempt to reorganise the displaced started only in 1985-86 by Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini.

Thus, a combination of the following factors weakened the capacity of the local people to resist the Project : a lack of strong tradition of resisting outside intervention, lack of cultural awareness of community right over the natural resources, weak regional collectivism due to different communities, completion of project work to certain extent, repression of mass resistance, weak commitment and lack of militancy in the initial leadership and emergence of a strong alliance of the corrupt middlemen during the period of the stagnation of the movement, the capacity of the local people of Chandil area to resist the project had become very weak.

At such a time, after a 7 to 8 year long stagnation of the movement, Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini entered the area. The organisation did not have any existence in this area before this time. The leadership of the organisation was a combined group of local and outside persons. It took some years in the beginning for the organisation to establish its identity and integrity. During this period, the activists of the organisation made attempts to psychologically prepare the displaced on the issue of stopping construction of the dam. But the attempt did not succeed due to weak power of resistance. After that, Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini decided to form an independent organisation of the displaced and struggle on the issue of rehabilitation. Thus Visthapit Mukti Vahini (VMV) was constituted and rehabilitation movement started.

The leading group of VMV says that a stand of ‘No dam’ could have been taken after the said situation but that could only have been an ideological position, it could not be circumstantial position. It would not have been possible to launch a movement

enlisting the participation of the local people with the said ideological position. Had the organisation stuck to the said ideological position, it would not have been able to play its role in mitigating the sufferings of the people, being displaced, to whatever extent it was possible. In that situation it could not have been possible to achieve the achievements the organisation achieved with regard to rehabilitation and rehabilitation policy. An old activist of VMV says that the rehabilitation movement of the Chandil area played a definite role in stopping the construction of the Icha dam. World Bank suspended loan to the Project only due to the pressure created by VMV by consistently raising the incongruities of the Project. Suspension of loan by World Bank played a big role in stopping the construction of the Icha dam.

Let us also pay attention to the reactions of the common displaced people about the dam. When they were asked during this study whether they considered the Project a wrong thing almost all the people replied that the Project was certainly wrong as far as they were concerned. Then why did you people not agitate to stop the dam? 2-3 types of replies came from the people for this question. Some people said that the government could kill them in firings like the Joyda firing. Some said - What could we do when the government itself would construct the dam, that is the prerogative of the government. One or two persons said that they could demolish the dam if the police kept away. It is obvious from these reactions that the displaced considered the Project wrong but they did not have the collective self-confidence and the determination to fight out the Project while confronting the state repression.

In the light of these details, it becomes necessary to make an evaluation of the leadership of VMV because naturally some questions arise with regard to their role. Main question is about the attitude of VMV towards development. There is or could be one approach that as VMV has raised the demand of proper rehabilitation it can be construed from this that it considered the original form of the Project legal/justified. But this conclusion is wrong on the criteria of the facts of VMV’s movement. Here it should be recalled that VMV had raised the demand to scrap the Icha dam and Koel-Karo Projects and the organisation had conducted independent and joint programmes on these issues. Not only this, it has been the declared stand of the organisation that all such projects should be cancelled which are opposed by the local people. The organisation, Chhatra-Yuva Sangharsh Vahini, with which VMV has been associated ideologically has played leading role in forcing the Balco mining project in Gandhmardan hills in the Sambalpur district of Orissa through the movement of Gandhmardan Suraksha Yuva parishad even after the project had begun.

There is also a question that when almost all the movements of alternative development were acting on the issue of ‘No dam’ how far it was justified to abandon that approach in Chandil with the plea that the people were not psychologically prepared for that. After all, with a few exceptions, this has been the historical experience that common people remain inactive and only the leadership makes them conscious, resisting and rebellious. This is not wrong in connection with the role of the leadership. Yet, attention needs to paid to some other points. This is also the role of the leadership that the it should recognise the aspirations and the potential of the common people in a particular situation and, in tune with that, the issues of struggle should be determined and the strategy should be prepared for evolving the movement. If that is not done, the activity of the leadership confines to an ideological campaign and gradually it dies down. Such campaign never turns into mass movement and this is the historical experience. VMV had decided to launch a movement, not an ideological campaign, with the participation of the people in order to solve the problems created by development. VMV worked to make the people conscious, fighting and rebellious through this movement. People’s

psyche was trained and agitated on very many issues like making public consent compulsory for initiating any project, right of the displaced on natural resources – waters of the dam, the need of making a radical change in the Land Acquisition Act and making rehabilitation an essential right. Attention should be paid to the special condition of Chandil where the people had begun with opposing the dam and later became inactive consequent to the state repression. This is not a situation of inaction of the common people. It doesn’t always become possible for a people to again become active on the earlier issue after having been terrorized and frustrated.

VMV’s attitude is different from the mainstream thinking of alternative development on the question of rehabilitation. This difference is the source of some questions and doubts on VMV’s commitment towards alternative development. The issue of rehabilitation is viewed as consent to the Project. VMV considers rehabilitation also an essential issue of alternative development and it views the potential of proceeding towards alternative development in the issue of rehabilitation.

There is no doubt that the demand of rehabilitation and the demand to scrap the project are two different situations. In normal circumstances, demand of rehabilitation is one step backward for the present projects. But that itself does not make the organisation a supporter of the development model. It is a simplistic conclusion to consider the project and rehabilitation symbiotic. Neither today’s system is one-dimensional nor it moves linearly. Similarly, alternative also will neither be one-dimensional nor will move on a linear path. The complexity and diversity of the objective conditions also do not allow such simplistic single-point conclusions. It can be better understood with a few examples. Is land to the tiller is statusquoist because it does not talk of eliminating individual property or instituting communal ownership? Can the existing Panchayat system be considered retrogressive because it is part of the much centralized ruling system of today? Can the joint forest management be dismissed on the plea that forest department would continue to have predominance? Can the existing participatory modes be considered improper on the argument that the participant cannot play a decisive role? Question of limitation can be raised on situations a step or a few steps further but before drawing conclusions on the questions a comprehensive evaluation is necessary. These situations may be inadequate but they are not necessarily negative; they can also be positive. If the direction of the issues and their course of evolution negate the prevalent situations and hit at them, then that will be a progressive one. It is necessary to understand that only the demand of rehabilitation can be a proper and viable strategy in a particular situation and in that situation an ideological stand like ‘No dam’ may become more helpful to the construction of the dam, and can be more ineffective in mitigating the troubles of the displaced because mass resistance cannot get associated with that.

The issue of ‘No dam’ is centered on the present. It cannot help mitigate the problems caused by the past projects and it does not include the vision of the possibility of achieving compensation for the displacement (even if less) caused by the future projects that are justified and are initiated with the consent of the people. But the issue of rehabilitation takes both these dimensions into consideration.

Here, this also should be understood that an issue like ‘No dam/no project’ is in fact not a central issue, rather only the demands like ‘No project without people’s consent’, ‘No land acquisition without the consent of the people’, ‘Compulsory participation of the people affected by project with the powers to decide in the formulation and operation of the project’ and ‘Displaced/affected people should have rights over the resources and benefits of the project’can be the central issues of alternative development.

The debate initiated by VMV for including proper rehabilitation in the concept of alternative development may not have been given due recognition today, but this is a significant and noteworthy role played by it.

It can be concluded from the above said analysis that the rehabilitation movement of VMV does not ideologically support the statusquoist development. VMV is not narrow or wrong at the level of concept.

It does not mean that VMV is totally faultless. It could not ensure effective participation of the women, it could not defeat the corrupt machinery of the middlemen and could not succeed in getting the revised rehabilitation policy implemented completely and this is its failure. Circumstances also contributed in this but shortcomings of the leadership also play a part in it. VMV has organised very less effective and powerful programmes like mass arrest and stop work till proper rehabilitation.

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Some important aspects, conclusions and suggestions

Before reaching to any conclusion or making any suggestion and before identifying the consequences and implications of the interventions by CSOs in SMP, let us glance on certain important ideological aspects.

1) Relation between civil society’s distance from the state and natural awareness of rights –

It has been noticed that there have been different concepts and awareness in the peoples of Kolhan, Rajbadi and Chandil on the issue of right on natural resources and ancestral/community property (agricultural fields etc.) etc. The people of Kolhan hold that the village society has the decisive and natural right on the lands of the village. Even the government cannot intervene in this right. The people in the areas of Chandil and Rajbadi have the awareness of their right on the resources (agricultural lands, trees

and plants etc.) under family ownership, but this awareness is not associated with a feeling of naturalness and decisiveness. The people of these areas believed that the government could intervene in every issue.

A fact with a very important implication emerges from this situation. The society, which has been relatively distanced historically from the state power and market, has greater awareness of natural right on the natural resources. It will not be wrong to say that this awareness of right is an awareness of civil rights also. Thus, the society, which has been in less contact with the present democratic government, is more strongly attached to their democratic rights. This fact presents a great ideological responsibility on the persons having commitments like extension of civil rights, establishment of local self-rule in the real sense, reinstatement of people’s right on natural resources and expansion of democracy. They are confronted with the challenge of reviewing the relationship between the present democratic state, the challenge to redefine and reshape the relationship between the rights of the citizens and rights of the state on the resources and the challenge to prepare a strategy to establish this reshaped relationship.

2) Participation of the traditional community leadership in the anti-dam movement:

It was observed that participation of Mundas and Mankis was negligible in the leadership of the movement during both the phases of the anti-dam movement of Icha. Usually, Mankis and Mundas had only played the role of supporters and co-operators. This is a serious question needing analysis as to why the persons who give leadership to the society did not give leadership to the movement that emerged against the state from the society itself. Surely one conclusion can be derived from this that this traditional leadership has surely certain limitations when confronted with a movement to protect the rights of the society.

3) This also was observed in the movement of the Icha area that the local leadership was not self-reliant in conducting the wide-ranging programmes of the movement. This shortcoming was compensated only with the help of the outside groups (who have the background of an ideology and participation in movements).

The leadership, that remained undaunted even after the murder perpetrated by the police and remained firm on its primary aspiration, had limitations in translating its fearless and committed aspirations into programmes. It is also a part of the serious and interesting responsibility to identify the link between one’s commitment & aspiration on the one hand and one’s capacity, on the other hand, to translate it into programmes of action.

4) Identifying the potential of the rehabilitation movement –

Two angles of thinking have been noted while taking an account of the limitations and importance of rehabilitation and rehabilitation movement. Most of the groups with a thinking of alternative way of development consider the present method of development a defeat/surrender. VMV’s outlook has been different from this prevalent angle of thinking. It will be better to see in the words of VMV itself:

“This rehabilitation movement has taken birth from the simple and straight realities of the region and the people of the area. The goals and forms of the movement are not the indication of any compulsion, rather they manifest a vision. There has been an approach from the beginning itself that the issues of the movement should emerge from the impact caused directly on the basis of the lives of the people. … This movement may look impartial to many people. Question may also arise in their minds

as to why this movement was not centred on the issue of resisting the construction of the dam…. We can only say about this that the people of the area were not prepared to that extent, we too were not having the confidence that requisite organisation was possible for this issue. There was a long gap between the speed of the construction of the dam and the speed of people’s awakening. In this situation, only maximum possible rehabilitation could be the only issue for the maximum possible security of the lives of the people. Sticking to the principle of opposition to the dam would have only meant incomplete rehabilitation or acceptance of all the tragic experiences of rehabilitation…..If one sticks to a principle irrespective of the situation it may at times prove fatal. The stand that we will not abandon the principle even if it causes miseries to the people is a subjective and self-centred devotion to the principle. Such a commitment to principle cannot create a mass movement and not an iota of alternative for the present pattern of development can be created without mass movement. … One should free oneself from the mentality to maintain the nature undisturbed. It is impossible to maintain the environment in its undisturbed pristine form in a continuously changing society. Similarly, this is also not possible to make the alternative future a duplicate of the past. One should keep in mind that the long-term ecological balance between the environment and the human being should advance for the better, not the worse. …Rehabilitation is not begging; it is an attempt to reinstate the right of a secure and settled life. This is an integral part of the development in the new pattern. Plans will be made in the process of the alternative development also; there will be constructions, which may disturb or harm some resources and life or change their forms. Even in that situation, rehabilitation will be needed. The propriety and relevance of today’s projects can be challenged with a just concept of rehabilitation. That is why, rehabilitation movement is an important part of the movement for alternative development.” [Source: Subarnarekha Ka Ahvan]

There should be a serious and healthy debate on this concept of rehabilitation.

5) Evaluation of the disparities and the question of accountability and integrity on the criteria of the responsibilities implied in that evaluation –

This has already been noticed that the SMP has been judged as an improper/defective project not only by the agitators but also by different persons representing the state, the teams appointed by the Project and on the basis of the results. Facts showing the discrepancies are as follows:1) Sunila Basant, Tribal Welfare Commissioner, in a letter to the Home Commissioner and Home secretary of Bihar in 1982, suggested that (I) Murder of Gangaram Kalundia should be investigated by CBI; (ii) Each displaced family should be given 2.5 to 5 acres of agricultural land and (iii) all the big projects should be reviewed and only very essential projects should be constructed. This should be noted that Mrs. Sunila Basant had written this letter in the context of SMP.

2) In the report of one sitting of Bihar Legislative Council it was said that quite a number of displaced families were not included in the list of the displaced.

3) In a socio-economic survey conducted by Consulting Engineering Services India Private Limited in 1986, it has been concluded that the sizes of the agricultural plots in the command area are very much disadvantageous for implementing better farming techniques, in general for all and in particular for the tribals. Situation becomes more problematic due to division of plots.

4) Waterlogging by the Chandil dam under construction has proved Project’s assessment about the levels of the lands wrong.

5) SMP has surreptitiously increased the number of villages to come under total submergence to 38 without giving any explanation.

Despite such facts, Bihar government did not review the Project, which makes it necessary to create a process of regular examination of the justification needed for the continuation of the Project. Now it has been accepted that what has been started should be completed.

6. Issue of accountability of financing banks –

After understanding the complete details of the movement, it seems necessary to evaluate the role of the institutions, particularly the World Bank, who gave loans for the construction of the Project. It is true that the World Bank has put pressure for rehabilitation and suspension of loan by World Bank also has played a role in stopping the construction of the Icha dam. But the basic question is something different – Why did the World Bank give loan to a Project which was built on the strength of the barbarity of the police, by shooting the people and crushing their human rights and continuing that process even further? Till 1991,45 teams of the World Bank spent 150 days (5 months) in the Project area. Situation came up for rehabilitation before the submergence. Why didn’t the World Bank play any role in that matter earlier? Now radial gate is going to be installed on the dam with a loan from Nabard in Chandil. With its installation, about 20,000 families will come under the area of submergence although the task of rehabilitation has not yet been completed.

In this situation, it seems necessary to develop one principle with regard to responsibility. There should be the policy to hold those financing institutions also guilty of human loss who extend loans or finances for the constructions that adversely affect the lives of the people. This also means that certain conditions should be stipulated on the financial institutions also before they give loans.

The above said questions should be pondered over seriously not only by the organisations of the movements and the CSOs active on the issues of alternative development and proper rehabilitation, but also by the CSOs working on the issue of civil liberties and other issues associated with democracy.

Now let us consider in brief the conclusions and suggestions that may come up from the consequences of the interventions by the CSOs, their implications and this study.

Outcome/achievements

1) World Bank’s loan was suspended. And so Icha dam was not constructed and consequently people of Icha area are saved from being displaced from their lands. There is no possibility of the construction of this dam in the near future.

2) The leadership of the movement has in association with like-minded organisations presented a detailed proposal for a national rehabilitation policy as an alternative to government’s proposal on the issue.

3) The displaced people continue to keep the unused land under their possession and also exercise their right on the fish in the reservoir. The displaced people are actively working to form a co-operative society for presenting their legal claim on fishing in the reservoir.

4) A separate rehabilitation policy was formulated for SMP which is more favourable to the displaced than what it is in all other rehabilitation projects of Bihar.

5) About 4,000 families got house construction grants of Rs 20 thousands each, about 100 families got land purchase subsidies of Rs 25 thousands each and more than 1200 displaced got service (jobs). All this is in addition to the compensation for land.

6) This idea is now entrenched in the minds of majority of the displaced that government’s law to acquire lands without consent is not proper.

7) Most of the displaced now hold that they must get land for land, and house for house.

8) Quite a number of displaced persons have bought some agricultural land with their own planning and they settled in places of their choice other than the rehabilitation colonies. As the ratio between the compensation paid for the acquired land and the market price of the land is1/3-1/4, they could purchase only one-third or one-fourth of the lands they had earlier.

9) Committed groups of activists are developed in both the areas. The ability of these groups to lead and think has been now recognised in the areas and these groups are now active in playing leading role in the areas.

The activists of the Chandil area are now active in the issues of protection of forests, empowerment of the women and Jharkhand movement also outside the area of submergence in addition to the issue of rehabilitation of the displaced.

This group in the Icha area is active in the villages of 3-4 blocks on the issue of tribal-self-rule/village autonomy.

This group is likely to remain active long term with continuity.

Weaknesses1) Participation of women was very less in the movement of the Chandil area. Despite a good participation of women in Icha area, capability to lead on a wider scale did not develop in them.

2) Corruption in Chandil area and government’s attitude to deny developmental work in the area of submergence could not be effectively challenged.

3) Uniformly contacts could not be developed and organization could not be developed effectively in all the villages of both the areas, and good participation could not be ensured from each village.

4) People of quite a number of villages of Icha area have taken compensation for the acquired land and service. 7-8 villages of Kolhan area also are included in it. This could not be stopped.

5) The movement of Chandil could not develop enough strength to stop such constructions that cause submergence of villages for which rehabilitation has not yet been completed.

Implications/conclusions and lessons learnt

It is necessary to understand some significant implications of the activities of the civil society actors in both these areas. The following lessons/suggestions can be derived from these implications: -

Although there was no regular and direct co-ordination between the CSOs of Icha and Chandil, the movements of both the organisations have helped each other by their potentials. This should be noted that the local resistance against the dam has surely played the primary role in stopping construction of the dams but the pressure created by the rehabilitation movement on World Bank in connection with the issues of rehabilitation has also played a significant associate role.

This conclusion implies that if strategy is prepared with tact co-operation is possible between the anti-dam movement and the rehabilitation movement. By evolving a proper co-ordination between them a new dimension could be developed to the movement for alternative development.

Rehabilitation movement cannot be called statusquoist or surrenderist or a supporter of the existing development. Radical dimensions can be incorporated in it. With that rehabilitation movement becomes an integrated part of the movement for alternative development.

If seen on the criteria of human rights and democratic system of working, the Land Acquisition Act and the system of development dependent on that are unjustified.

It is necessary to evolve a broad national mass campaign for achieving a democratic project policy and rehabilitation policy. All the C.S.Actors should play their role in it. There should be a uniform project policy and rehabilitation policy based on the minimum and compulsory provisions for all the departments and that should be legally valid. In view of the economy that is oriented towards privatisation and globalisation, it is necessary that this policy/Act should be made applicable to all those international and private undertakings also that would cause displacement.

A non-governmental organisation should be assigned to supervise the projects and the implementation of rehabilitation and to make recommendations with regard to that. Such organisation should have constitutional authority.

A scheme should be prepared to gather the statistics of the displacement by the projects since independence and their rehabilitation through an extensive survey within a fixed time, and a programme should be prepared for completing the incomplete rehabilitation and it should be implemented.

In this regard, it will be the responsibility of the civil society actors to prepare detailed data about the persons displaced by the complete and incomplete projects in their areas.

Legal age of the Vikas Pustika (Identity booklet for the displaced) of SMP is 10 years (up to 2000 AD). The administration may possibly conclude from this that their legal claims get automatically terminated with the completion of that period. Such determination of a time period is wrong. The Vikas Pustika should be considered valid till the displaced are provided full rehabilitation.

A legal procedure should be formulated to hold the loan-giving/financing agencies also responsible to compensate for the loss caused due to displacement, incomplete rehabilitation or irresponsible actions or the faults of the projects.

These conclusions and responsibilities are stated in brief. Many such important things can be added to them. One should continuously think for them.

Going beyond the limitations and achievements of these two movements, one should underline the importance these movements. They have brought a qualitative change in the socio-cultural-political character of these areas. A positive dynamism developed in the societies of these places. The movements have helped prepare a ground for people’s intervention in the existing system of governance and development. Committed attempts will continue to be made for the creation of proper governance, people-oriented development policy and other people’s policies, and such expectations do not seem to be meaningless today.

********************

Notable quotations from interviews

On acquisition of land

1. “I don’t know under which law land has been taken. Land belonged to the government, and the government took it away.”

-Pandit Gope, Jayira/Udatand, Chandil dam area

2. “Government forcibly took the land, we did not sell it. So the government should take care of us”.

-2 Satyanarayan Singh Dev, Moisad, Chandil dam area

1. “When water will come, we will go to upper lands. We don’t fear water. Water is our relative, it comes and goes.”

-2 A villager, Kalichamda, Chandil dam area

On rehabilitation

1. “We were told that we would be settled in rehabilitation colonies with the facilities of water, roads, medical facilities, school and employment. We were to be provided with a livelihood better than the pre-displacement period. But nobody wants to go to rehabilitation colony. We don’t get employment there. Ration cards have not been given. Ownership documents for lands have not been given. Block officers don’t consider that. They don’t consider it a village. They say it belongs to the Project”.

-2 Devendra Nath Banerjee, Chandil/Udal

1. “There should be rehabilitation. First rehabilitation and then displacement. But thereverse is happening – first displace, we will think of rehabilitation later.”

- Bhriguram Mahato, Janum-Palashdih

On the role of people’s representatives

2. “Mukhia-Sarpanch started taking illicit money. Then persons moving with them also started extorting money saying that we would not have got the compensation, they managed it. All this was done by an alliance between officers-employees of the Project and the Mukhia. We were relieved when cheques started coming to the residences. It was good to receive money at home, people think. Villagers never had any transactions with banks. Mukhia etc. used to take money for opening account in banks, filling forms for withdrawing money, in splitting joint accounts into individual accounts etc.”

-2 Devendra Nath Benerjee-3

1. “MLAs and MPs did not do anything. They didn’t even have complete information about the Project. Once my father told Shiv Prasad Sahu (ex-MP) –‘So many people are getting submerged; people are not getting service.’ Sahuji replied – ‘How will they give so many jobs?’ Problem of the displaced is serious. MLAs and MPs want to avoid such a serious problem.”

- Devendra Nath Banerjee

On right on resources

2. “We should have right on water. Our lands are gone. Persons whose lands have gone under water should have right on water.”

- Nakul Majhi and Neel Kamal Gope, Keshorgaria, Chandil dam area

On life in the new place

9. “There is nobody to look after the dam-submerged people. Even the leaders of this place don’t think of us. When we dam flowing drain water, sombody in the downstream snaps it. There is much inconvenience in getting water for bathing. It is alright upto January. In Ruiyani (original village), even buffallow calves don’t sit in dam waters. They also used to go to the river. There was a cow which wouldnot even drink the water of river. It drank only spring water.”

- BhagirathMahato and Phanibhushan Mahato, Piyaldih

10. “Block is not getting any work done here. BDO and Gram Sevak say that development work will not bedone in the area of the displaced. Even tube-wells andwells are not repaired.”

On collectivism

11. “Did not sit together. Every house had its own way. Everybody wanted one’s own betterment – I should get, not others. People did not collectively think even on the question ofleaving the village.”

- Bhagirath Mahato, Phanibhushan Mahato and Suresh Pramanik, Piyaldih

People’s comments on the Project

12. “Displacement was a bad thing that happened. Let thedam be demolished, we will go to our villages. The dam has been forced on us. They resorted to firing to make the dam. The displaced should have right on the water. That would provide some livelihhod. It is better to have something than nothing.”

- Ramdas and Jainath Manjhi, Batkamkocha,Keshorgaria

13. “Dam has been bad for us! …Let the dam be demolished, we get our lands… only we will be benefited.”

-2 Susen Singh Munda, Kanderbera, Durri.

10. “There will not be peace and happiness like this anywhere else. We were acquainted with trees, earth. We had income also. Rehabilitation policy was wrong. We have not sold our lands willingly. Even complete rehabilitation will not be convenient. We will lose more and get less. But we cannot fight against the government. We are not united. If there be unity we will make a hole in the dam.”

- Atul Mahato, Anda

************************

Basic questionnaire for the study

1. Information power of the displaced2. How and when did you learn about the dam?3. What all information do you have about the Project? - Who is constructing? Who

is funding? How much has to be spent? How much land and population will come under submergence? How much land will be irrigated? How much electricity will be generated? Who all did oppose the dam? What were the consequences etc.?

4. What are the main points of the Act under which lands of the people were acquired?

5. What are the points in the Rehabilitation Plan of the project?6. How many people did get compensation for their lands, house building grants,

land purchase subsidy, and how many are yet to get? How many did get jobs? How many persons did get any other facilities of rehabilitation?

7. What is the condition of the dam now? Which part of the work on dam is being done now? Which work with regard to rehabilitation is being done now? Which agitation of the displaced is going on and what are their demands?

2. Transparencyi. How does the news about the decision reach to you through

transparency?ii. When you go to get any information to the offices, do you get the

required information? Tell on the basis of your experience.iii. How did you get the information that dam was going to be constructed

and your land would be acquired for that?iv. Did you/anybody demand to make all the information about the Project

public?

3. Accountabilityi. To what extent the policies, schemes and programmes – land acquisition,

compensation, grants, employment, training, loans etc. – have been Implemented? What has the Project done with regard to the right of fishing?

ii. Did ever the Project made its activities and accounts public?iii. What did the Project do for the lands and houses that were devastated by

submergence without their being acquired or acquired without compensation?

iv. What steps have been taken for the conservation/protection of forests, minerals, archeological remnants and other natural resources?

v. Public policyvi. Do you think it necessary to make changes in the policy or laws connected

with the Project?vii. If so what have you people done for that?viii. Was any change made in the policy or law due to the pressure of the

displaced people?ix. Has any approach of alternative public policy been evolved and publicised by

the displaced/organisation of the displaced?x. Has any dialogue taken place between the displaced and the government on

the issue of policies and laws?

5. Self-governance/Decentralisationi. Has the project administration ever conducted any process of consultations

with the villagers and village-level people’s representatives?ii. Was the process of acquiring land and giving compensation conducted in the

villages or was it done in Project offices?iii. Did the senior officers use to visit villages or not?iv. How many processes were conducted for taking decisions at the village level,

for forcing the Project and the government to implement those decisions and for maintaining pressure on them for the same?

v. Did the villagers collectively try to decide how to deal with submergence and where to resettle?

vi. Have the displaced people been claiming their right on the resources of the dam (water, fish etc.), income from the project and other benefits, and the right to participate in taking decisions connected with the Project?

6. Participationi. Did the displaced have any opportunity/space to play their role in the Project?ii. Did the World Bank create any process to obtain the opinions of the displaced

in the evaluation of the Project and rehabilitation?iii. To what extent did the displaced people participate in deciding the issues of

the movement and programmes of the displaced people?

7. Leadership/initiative

i. What attempts have the villagers made with their own initiative for the solution of the problems caused by the Project? Which persons have given leadership to this initiative of the village and what was the procedure of taking decisions?

ii. What was the relationship between the initiative of the village and the initiative of other villages, and with the organisations of the displaced in general? What approach did the organisations of the displaced adopt in the case of such initiatives?

iii. What were the shortcomings and achievements of this village leadership?

8. Collectivism/correlationi. What impact has the situation, caused by the Project, made on the

collectivism/mutual correlation?ii. Do the villagers hold mutual consultations and go united for gathering

information or for taking compensation, or every individual goes quietly and separately? Do they discuss after returning to village or not?

iii. Have the displaced, who left their original villages and went to settle in new habitats, done so after mutual consultations or individually?

iv. Has there been any change in people’s participation in the social and religious ceremonies held in the village?

v. How are mutual disputes settled in the village?vi. Are there separate groups in the village? Are there separate groups in the

movement of the displaced?vii. Resources, awareness of relationship with resources and utilization of the

resourcesviii. What changes have taken place in the state of resources due to the dam? Which

of the resources are wasted/reduced? Which of the resources are created/increased?

ix. What changes have taken place in the forms of livelihood or employment due to change in the form/state of resources?

x. Who controls these new resources and who should control them? What right should the displaced have on water? What has the Project done in this regard and what has been the reaction of the displaced on this?

9. Awareness of citizenship and government’s attitude towards civil rights10. What is your relationship with the country and the government of the country?

What are your rights and responsibilities under this relationship? To what extent do you really have these rights? To what extent do you fulfill your responsibilities?

11. What impact did the Project make on this relationship? Have your civil rights been violated due to this? If so what has the government done to restore them? What have you done for this?

11. Condition of civic amenitiesi. What were the civic amenities available before the Project and what are there

now?ii. What impact did the Project make on the development schemes prevalent in

the villages?

12. Role of the rule of law/Judiciaryi. To what extent has the project followed the concept of the ‘rule of law’?ii. Did the Project register false cases in order to break the resistance of the

people? iii. Was there discrimination on the basis of gender and might in giving

compensation?

iv. What was the attitude of the police and administration towards the movement of the displaced?

v. Did the displaced approach court for justice against the injustice done by the Project?

13. Mutual relationship among the CSOs14. Which have been the organisations active in the area? What is the state of

co-operation and differences among them?15. To what extent did the outside organisations help the organisations of the

displaced?16. What type of relationship is there between the organisations, active on the

problem of displacement in this area, and the organisations and the struggles of the other areas?

13. Corruption14. What are the forms of corruption there in the Project? Which are the forces

active in this regard?15. What is the attitude of the displaced towards corruption?16. What have the organisations of the displaced done on this issue and to what

extent did that make an impact?

13. Role of the people’s representatives (including Mukhias)What all have the people’s representatives done for the solution of the problems of the displaced?

14. Role of the World Bank15. What has been the opinion of the World Bank about the development

schemes and rehabilitation?16. What have the displaced been telling the representatives of the World Bank

and what was the reply of the World Bank representatives? Finally, what has been the decision of the World Bank?

17. Have the representatives of the World Bank been going to the villages and observing the condition of the displaced?

18. How did the villagers evaluate the World Bank?

Note: Most of the persons interviewed in the Chandil dam area were interviewed on the basis of this questionnaire. Discussions were also held on the new questions emerging during the talks on other important issues. Persons particularly interviewed for gathering information about the 1978 firing or any litigation were not asked all the questions. This questionnaire was not made the basis for interviews with people in the Icha dam area. They were asked to give detailed information about their movement and questions were put to them in between to gather complete information.

********************List of Interviews

Sl. No. Name Place Interview taken by

1. Satyanarayan Singhdeo Moisara Manthan/ Ravi Kumar[FC]

2. Digamber Singh Sardar Kali Chamda Manthan/ Ravi KumarVanmali singh Munda[ST]

3. Ravi Singh/Sonaram Singh Matkumdih Manthan/ Ravi Kumar

4. Abhimanyu Singh Munda Durri Manthan/ Ravi Kumar

5. Devendra Nath Banerjee Chandil [Udal] Manthan/ Ravi Kumar

6. Santosh Mahto Suksari Rehabilitation Manthan/ Ravi Kumar[MC] [MW] [PE] Site [RS]

7. Kalipad Kalindi Suksari [RS] Manthan/ Ravi KumarVinod Kumar Kalindi (Piyaldih)

8. Rudal (F) Gangudih [RS] Manthan/ Ravi Kumar[Udal]

9. Koka Pramanik Gangudih [RS] Manthan/ Ravi Kumar(Ghodanegi)

10. Arun Chandra Pramanik Gangudih [RS] Manthan/ Ravi Kumar(Babuchamda)

11. Vineshwar Sao/ Dhirendra Nath Burahatu Manthan/ Ravi Kumar Sao/Radhanath Gope/ Naresh (OBC)

12. Subhash Ghatwal / Ajamber Lapsodih Manthan/ Ravi KumarManjhi/ Rajnikant+ Manki/Budheshwar Manjhi/SarotiManjhiain (F) [ST]

13. Nakul Manjhi/ Neel Kamal Kesorgoria Manthan/ Ravi KumarGope [ST] [OBC]

14. Kalo Lohra Chawlibasa Amar Sengel[ST] [Ichagarh]

15. Harmohan Gope/ Ranjit Gope Pitaki Ravi Kumar[OBC] [Harsundarpur]

16. Ramesh Mahto Patkum Ravi Kumar[OBC]

17. Ramdas Manjhi Batkamkocha Ravi Kumar [ST] [Kesorgoria]

18. Suk Manjhi Tankocha Ravi Kumar [ST] [Kesorgoria]

19. Kalipad Mahto Chainpur [Canal Area] Ravi Kumar[OBC]

20. Sivcharan Mardi Murugdih Ravi Kumar[ST] [PE]

21. Suresh Pramanik/ Chaliyama Manthan/ Ravi KumarBhagirath Mahto/ [Udal and Piyaldih]Phanibhusan Mahto [OBC]

22. Vibhuti Gope Kanderbera Manthan [OBC] [Durri]

23. Susen Singh Kanderbera Manthan [ST] [Durri]

24. Bhim Mahali Saharbera Tuilung Tola Manthan[ST] [Canal Area]

25. Umakant Mahto Ramnagar Manthan/ Ravi Kumar [OBC] [MW]

26. Atul Mahto Anda Manthan/ Ravi Kumar[OBC]

27. Shivanath Mahto/ Hundrudih Manthan/ Ravi KumarKashinath Mahto[OBC]

28. Upen Mahto/ Kalyanpur Manthan/ Ravi KumarPanchnan Gorai/Kedar Pramanik[OBC]

29. Ravi Kumar Chingridih Manthan[ST]

30. Krishna Gope Karandih Ravi Kumar [OBC]

31. Kailash Mahto/ Janum Palashdih Manthan/ Ravi KumarTarini Panday Adhinchandra Mahto/ RajeevaMahto/ Bhriguram Mahto[FC] [OBC]

32. Suchand Gope Gangudih R.S. Manthan/ Ravi Kumar[OBC]

33. Motilal Mahto Kisundih Manthan/ Ravi Kumar[OBC]

34. Rajhav Mahto/Fagu Mahto/ Anandnagar- Ravi KumarLalit Pramanik [OBC] Baghjobra

35. Pandit Gope Jaira Ravi Kumar[OBC] [Udatanr]

36. Bhashan Manmi (Hurlung –Baniyadih) Manthan[ST] [PE]

37. Kapur Bagi Chakulia Manthan[ST] [MW]

38. Arvind Anjum Jamshedpur Manthan[MW]

39. Bhirju Manghi/ Kandar Hurlung Ravi Kumar

Manjhi/ Gihi Manjhi/Saro Manjhi/ Nepal Manjhi[ST]

40. Dugu Bhuiyan/ Vijay Tanti Bishundih [Patkum] Ravi Kumar [SC]

41. Gamha Hansda Dimudih Amar Sengel[ST]

42. Sadanand Manjhi Dimudih Amar Sengel[ST]

43. Budhu Gope Karandih Ravi Kumar[OBC]

Icha Dam Area

Sl.No. Name Interview taken by

1. Sadho Purti/ Shiva Charan Manthan Alda/ Vishwanath Bura/ Sankar Sundi[ST-Ho Tribe] [PA]

2. Harish Bhumij ManthanST- Bhumij

3. Sidheshwar ManthanST-Bhumij

4. Kumar Chandra Mardi ManthanST Santhal

5. Sumitra(F) ManthanSanthal

6. Acharjee (PA) (FC) Manthan (PE)

7. Surendra Biruli Manthan(ST- Ho) (PA)

8. Lakshman Biruli Manthan(ST-Ho) (PA)

ST- Schedule Tribe, SC – Schedule Caste, MW – Movement Worker/ LeaderPA- Project Affected, PE – Project Employee, F- Female, FC- Forward CasteOBC- Other Backward Caste / Middle Caste

*****************************

References

Sl.No. Name and description

1. Catalogue of Appointment of displaced Persons – Subernrekha Project– 1993

2. Statement of Land Acquisition of Submergence Area- General Status Report of R/R Site

3. Revised Rehabilitation and Resettlement Plan for First Phase Submergence of 16 village of Chandil Dam.- Administrator, Subernrekha Multipurpose Project, Vikas Bhawan, Adityapur Jamshedpur-831013

4. The Impact of Subernrekha multipurpose project on the Indigenous people of the Singhbhum – Mathew

Areeparampil , People and Dams – PRIA Publication

1. Jab Nadee Bandhee – Editor Hemant/ Rajeeva

2. Development , Displacement and Rehabilitation: A Comparative Study of Selected Villages in the

Singhbhum Districts of Bihar – Alexius Ekka

Thesis submitted in the J.N.U. For the Award of Degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

7. Development Resettlement of People Affected By the Subernrekha multipurpose project – A Study Conducted by Dr. V. Upadhyay – IIT Delhi and Sponsored by Ministry of Welfare, Government of India – February 1994.

8. Prakriya – June –July ’88

9. Writ Petition filed by VMV in Supreme Court & counter- affidavit by SMP representative

10. Exploitation of Tribals – A Case Study of Rajasthan and Bihar: Conducted by Dr. V. Upadhyay – Department of Humanists and Social Sciences IIT Delhi. Sponsored by Ministry of Welfare (TDD), Government of India, December

11. Jharkhand Ke Mamlo Se Sambandhit Samiti Ki Report- May, 1990.

12. Stop the Construction of the Kharkai Dam in the interest of Tribals and the Nation – Tribals Documentation Center, Chaibasa, Bihar.

13. A Report of Police Firing in Singhbhum - Compiled by Tribal Research and Training Center

14. Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Commission Twenty Ninth Report – 1987- 89

15. Environmental Impact Assessment of S.M. P. Bihar- A Study Sponsored by the Resident Mission in India, New Delhi of

World Bank – Report Prepared by Metaplanners and Management Consultant – Patna (India) –1993.

16. Bharat Ke Niyantrak Mahalekhaparikshak ka 31 March 1998 ko Samapt Hone Wala Varsh ka Prativedan- Sankhya 1(Civil) - Bihar Sarkar

17. Leaflets and other literature of Icha-Kharkai Bandh Visthapit Sangh and Visthapit Mukti Vahini

******************

Annexure – 1

Salient features of dams under SMP

1. Location Subarnrekha Dam at Chandil Kharkai Dam at Icha near near Jamshedpur Chiabasa

2. Type Earthen Dam on the left side spillway in the river portion

with spillway in the river with three dykes on the right side and two on the jelt

3. Catchment 5.646 sq.Km.(2.180sq. mile) 2.849 sq. Km.(1.100 sq. mile)4. Maximum 52.12 sq.Km.(171) 39.93m.(131) Height5. Total length 696.34 m.(2284) 8,140.28 m.(26700)6. Length of 228 m. (748) 192 m.(630) spillway7. Top width 7.315m. (24) 7.315m. (24)8. Level of top 196.00 m. (643) 229.0 m. (751)

of dam9. Dead strong 169.16 m. (555) 205.5 m. (674)

Level10. Dead storage 351.54 M m3 203.52Mm3

Capacity (2,85,000 Acre ft.) (1,65,000 Acre ft.)11. Full reservoir 192.00 m. (630) 225.0 m. (738)

Level12. Conservation 189.00 m. (620) 225.0 m. (738)

Level13. Conservation 1,147.14 Mm3 838.77 Mm3

storage (1,65,000 Acre ft.) (6,80,000 Acre ft.)14. Flood Reserve 462.55 Mm3 Nil

(3,75,000 Acre ft.)15. Water spread 17,028 Ha. 11.216 Ha. (2.613 Ha. in Orissa)

area at FRL (43,000 Acre ) (27.719 Acres)16. M&I water 494.0 Mm3 74.0 Mm3

supply (4,00,000 Ac. ft.) (60,000 Ac. ft.)17. Cost Rs. 2.295.248 million Rs. 2,247.541 million

Annexure – 2

Salient Features of Barrage under SMP

1. . Location Kharkai Barrage at Subernrekha atGanjia near Adityapur Galudih near Ghatsila

2. Type Gravity section on Gravity section onrock foundation with rock foundation with

gates gates

3. Catchment 5.815 sq.Km. 13.629 sq. Km. Area (2245sq miles) (5262 sq.miles)

4. Total length 258.00 m 436.17(846’) (1431’)

5. Deepest bed 129.88 m 82.90 mLevel (426’) (272’)

6. Crest level 133.00 m 86.87 m(436.25’) (285’)

7. Pond level 144.8 m 94.49 m(475’) (310’)

8. Gates 13 Nos of 15.24 x 11.81 m 25 Nos of 15.24 x 11.81 m13 Nos of 50’x 38.75’ 25 Nos of 50’ x 25’

9. Top of the 153.92 m 105.77 m hoist bridge 505’ 347’

10. M&I water 86.0 Mm3 86.0 Mm3

Supply (70.000 ac. ft) (70.000 ac. ft)

11. Cost Rs. 390.809 million Rs.368.450 million

Annexure – 3

Salient features of canal systems of SMP

Sl. Head Canal Length Discharge GCA CCA Annual CostNo. works (Km.) (Cumec) (ha) (ha) Irrigation Rs.

(ha) million1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.1. Chandil Left 134.4 84.11 115,216 63,300 96,849 3946.562

Dam

2. Chandil Right - - 19,836 12,100 18,513 605.0Dam

3. Icha Left 19.2 21.20 21,477 15,930 24,385Dam

1760.432

4. Icha Right 32 49.70 61,550 44,315 67,802Dam

5. Galudih Left 60.8 9.95 10,927 6,000 9,180 587.266Barrage

6. Galudih Right 64 113.28 4,856 2,080 4,079 1483.192Barrage

7. Kharkai Left 14.4 3.17 1,467 925 1,415Barrage at Ganjia

1228.755

8. Kharkai Right 17.6 11.33 24,472 15,415 23,585Barrage at Ganjia

Annexure - 4

Component-wise Land Requirements of SMP

(All figures in ha)

Sl.No. Name of the Total DISTRIBUTION OF THE Component Land LAND REQUIRED

Required Private Govt. Forest

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

1. Chandil dam 17,028 12,700 3,268 1,060

2 Icha Dam & Dykes 8,585* 7,075 1,250 260

3. Kharkai Barrage 266 50 14 20234 Galudih Barrage 180 150 30 -

3. Chandil LBC 1,242 730 67 445

4. Icha Canals 684 470 174 4

5. Kharkai Canals 263 102 40 121

6. Galudih Right Canals 747 490 137 120

7. Distributaries 1,737 1,030 260 497

8. Galudih MDS and Pilot 2,900 2,100 540 260Area

9. Colonies 250 130 120 -

12. Galudih LBC 240 180 54 6

Total 34,172 25,207 5,954 3,011

Note: Figures shows land to be acquired in Bihar. In additiona to this 2,631 ha. Land is to be acquired for Icha dam in Orissa comprising 1815ha. Private, 808 ha. Government and 8 ha forest lands.

Annexure - 5

Data on Submergence and Displacement

Particulars Chandil dam Icha dam

Submergence area (ha) 17,028 8,585

Fully affected villages 32 26

Partly affected villages 84 61

Total affected villages 116 87

Affected families (total) 9,820 2,64 I 10 Nil 2080 17 1 1563II 16 4 5753 9 14 894III 6 10 1788 Nil 14 132IV Nil 70 199 Nil 32 59

Total: 32 84 9820 26 61 2648

ANNEXURE - 7

Population and Ethnicity

Sl. Catchment Chandil Icha CommandNo. Parameter area reservoir reservoir area

block villages villages village1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

1. Density of 226 214 168 205Population(No.per Sq.Km)

2. Male-Female ratio 100:95 100:95 100:107 100:963. Scheduled tribes (%) 50.3 29.6 72.3 48.74. Scheduled castes (%) 5.1 6.5 3.3 4.35. Literacy in males (%) 23.2 19.2 16.0 21.16 Literacy in females (%) 9.2 3.4 3.6 7.6

Annexure-8

Percentage of Total populationSl. Economic Catchment area Chandil Reservoir Icha Reservoir Command No. Activity block villages villages area

villages1 2 3 4 5 6

1. Cultivators 17.1 20.9 25.7 14.4

2. Agricultural labour 6.4 6.9 9.4 10.6

3. Household industries 1.0 0.8 1.1 1.1

4. Other workers 9.5 2.7 3.6 7.4

5. Marginal workers 6.8 12.7 3.7 8.6

6. Non- workers 59.2 56.0 56.5 57.9Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Annexure-9

Minerals of Singhbhum- Occurrence and usage

Sl. Name of minerals Occurrence Total reserve UsesNo. (Thousand

Tonnes)1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

1. Apatite Kandup, Pathargora, 1.500 Fertiliser Industry.Khejurdari

1. Asbestos Nurda, Manpur, Sarjori 0.074 Manufacture of Bichaburu, Telingkocha asbestos sheet etc.

2. Chromite Roroburu, Chitungburu 0.380 Metallurgical Kimsiburu, Jojohatu industry.

3. China clay Karanjia, Dumaria, 1.385 Ceramic, paper, rubber Sararia textile & paint industries

4. Copper Musabani, Bandia, 36.940 Electrical & Chemical Surda, Pathargora, industry.Rakha, Roam, Nandup,Sidheswar, Tamapahar, Turamdih, Bayanbil,Ramchandra Pahar.

5. Gold Kundarakocha, Lawa,Ankua, - -Mysara, Pahardiha, Sonapet,Barachakri, Bhitardari.

7. Iron ore Noamundi, Notuburu, 1,139,618 Manufacture of steel sectionJamda, Gua, Chiria. For construction, structural

& Allied industries.8. Kyanite Lapsaburu, Kanyaluka, 0.311 Ceramic & refractory

Ghogidih, Jotipahari, industry.Shribaidungri

9. Limestone Belt from Chaibasa to N.A. Manufacture of cement. & Jagannathpur, Jhinkpani

Dolomite

10. Manganese Gua, Ghatkuri, and N.A. Manufacture of Ferro AlloysOther areas hard tough steel.

11 Talc Bhiltardari, Khejurdari, N.A.Kundarkocha, Raghabdih, Bahragora, Gumtibera, ManpurMahulisal, Karlabera, Nurda,

12. Uranium Jadugoda, Kanyaluka, 2.800 Production of Nuclear energyTamadugri, Keruadungri,Bhalki, Narwa - Pahar

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Annexure - 10

Socio-economic situation of 14 villages( According to a study by XISS, Ranchi)

Average family size 5.87

Age group 15-35 39.29 %

Age group 36-55 16. 92 %

Working age group 15- 55 56.21 %

Below 15 & above 55 43.79 %

Nuclear families 80.00 %

Joint families 20.00 %

(Source of Annexures 1 to 10: Environmental impact assessment of Subernarekha Multi-purpose Project, Bihar)

****************Annexure - 11

Submergence of villages

Sector Total No of villages No. of Families

Total : SC: ST

Area Acquired[Acre]

Amount Paid in Lakh

Chandil 116 10218 654 1712 32536.28 6563.12

Icha 87 2655 22 623 23509.73 1823.17

Source – S.M.P Document.Note: (I) In this reference, No. of fully submerged villages is 38

In earlier S.M.P Document, No. of fully submerged villages is 32.(II) Lands of all villages are not acquired and compensation has been paid in only

25 villages. In these 25 villages, 11 are in Kolhan area.

Annexure - 12

Basic infrastructure at the Resettlement Sites(According to SMP R.R.Plan)

1. Approach road and internal road in the colony

2.One hand-pump for 25 Nos. of familiesOne deep well for each 50 Nos. of families

3 One deep – well for each 50 Nos. of families

4 One pond

5 One primary/middle/high school

6 One Panchayat Bhawan cum Health Sub-centre

7 Village marketing center

8 Places of worship

9 Open space

10 Community center

11 Co-operative building

12 Mini-industrial shed

13 Sulabh Shouchalaya (public toilet)

14 One burning ghat

15 Street-lighting and electrification of public buildings

********************

Annexure –13

Economic rehabilitationExisting occupational pattern of the displaced (estimate of the Project)

a) Agricultural activities 7,000 familiesb) Industrial and mining labour 600 ”c) Agriculture and other labour not owning land 1,700 ” d) Other occupations like household etc. 400 ”

_______________ Total 9,700 families

________________

Occupational pattern of oustees at the post-resettlement stage

A. Agriculturei) Own arrangement 3,500ii) Settlement of govt. land on selective basis 1,500

_____________Total 5,000

_____________

B. Service/labouri) Government service in the Project 1,000ii) In other government departments 500iii) Employed in industries (skilled) 300(new)iv) Semi-skilled workers in mines and industries 300(new)v) Unskilled labour 600(old)

_________________ Total 2,700

C. Self-employmentI) Industries/manufacturing 350ii) Industrial entrepreneurs 50iii) Fisheries 500iv) Transport 100v) Service industry 300vi) Forestry 100vii) Trade 200viii) Other professional occupations 400(old)

________________ Total 2,000

_________________ A + B + C = 9,700 __________________________

Note: These estimates are of the first R & R plan. Revised estimate in the light of increased family Nos. is not available.

Annexure –14

Development of Rehabilitation site: Chandil Sector

Rehabilitation sites Status of ResattlementNo.of Plots PlotsPlots Alloted Occupied

Status of Infrastructure&IA & Well Tube Pond ApproachLCH Well Road

Public Utilities

Other Aminities

1.Chilgu2.Sukhsari3.Gangudih4. Chawlibasa5. Kapali6. Kanderbera7. Kataiya & Chhotalakha8 TMC. 9. Bankathi10.Kukroo11.Berasiserum

503 267 183 270 206 191407 200 193272 186 106297 128 35289 76 25190 75 20

325 68 43431 265 17861 338 8473 102 25

130 5 18 1 * 48 4 15 1 WBM50 3 17 1 BTR

50 3 15 2 BTR51 3 12 2 BTR

4 16 1 BTR 96 9 1 WBM 100 4 17 3 BTR 16 23 WBM 3 36 BTR 1 15 BTR

S.H C. M. TS.H. M. TS.H C. M. TS. C. M. TS.H C. M. TS.H C.TH C. M.

S.C.THH

Total 4318 1911 846 563 30 193 12

Note: IA = Indra Awas LCH = Low Cost House WBM = Water Bound Macdum BTR = Black Top Road

S = School Building H = Health Center Cum Panchayat Bhawan

C = Community Hall M = Marketing YardT = Temple * = Site is on National Highway

Annexure –15

Employmenrt of Displaced persons in Project Job

SectorSector No. of villages Families Grade Total Women SC ST

III IV Chandil 61 6402 444 729 1173 71 97 346

Icha 43 2606 221 281 502 57 17 282

GrandTotal

104 9008 665 1010 1675 128 114 628

Source: Catalogue of Appointment of Displaced Persons-Subernrekha Project – 1993

Annexure – 16

Resettlement measures as on 31.1.1994(In Chandil sector)

Item No of Villages No. of FamiliesShifting Charge

House Building Grant

37

42

4900

3731