Patkar accuses Guj govt of misleading SC on rehabilitation

Social activist Medha Patkar today accused the Gujarat government of hiding facts about rehabilitation of persons affected by Narmada dam by providing false information to the Supreme Court.
Patkar met around 100 project-affected persons who have been staging a sit-in outside the resettlement office in Kevadiya Colony near the dam here for the last three days.
"These people are still facing so many problems. They are still deprived of basic amenities like water for drinking and farming. But the officials just close the records, noting that everything has been done," she told media.
"Though so much work is yet to be done, lawyers of Gujarat government tell the Supreme Court that nothing is left to be done and everything is completed except filling the dam with water," said Patkar, who arrived here after attending a national convention on land rights in Ahmedabad.

People affected by construction of the Narmada dam from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are taking part in the sit-in agitation.
One of them, Jayanti Tadvi, said officials did not give them satisfactory replies.
"Our settlements have not been provided with water for drinking or farming. When we made a representation to the officials here, they told us to approach higher-ups. Our problems still persist," she claimed.
Former union minister and local MP Mansukh Vasava met the agitators yesterday and said he would raise the issue in the Lok Sabha.