New Delhi: Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz and two other ministers will visit resettlement sites for families displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Dam.
This announcement came after the hunger strike by Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar and two activists entered the eighth day. Patkar's health deteriorated on Wednesday and doctors warned that the next 48 hours would be very critical.
"We are going into a very big situation as compared to review. It's for the first time that any Union Minister will go, accompanied by two Union Ministers. So we're going in a team, we must understand the question of rehabilitation, how our committees are functioning and bring to light everything we see there," said Soz.
The NBA wants work on increasing the dam’s height to 121.92 m from the current 113 m stopped till the affected people are rehabilitated.
NBA activists met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday and requested her to intervene in the matter. Patkar, who is surviving on water, vomited several times on Wednesday.
Former PMs V P Singh and I K Gujaral have written to PM Manmohan Singh, asking him not to let Patkar’s condition deteriorate.
Patkar said thousands of displaced families haven't been resettled, and she would not give up her fast at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi till they get justice. CPI leaders D Raja and AB Bardhan visited Patekar on Tuesday.
Patkar has difficulty in speaking and NBA activists are concerned over her condition. Patkar has turned down repeated requests from many people, including the Prime Minister himself, to end her fast.
Patkar has had a stream of visitors from the civil society, including noted Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande and academic Prof Yashpal, who have expressed solidarity with her protest.
NBA activists are taking turns in joining Patkar in her fast after she and three others, Dheeraj Kumar, Avdesh and Nakhreen Behn, started their protest.
Patkar on Tuesday turned down Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s request to end her hunger strike, saying that her agitation would continue till the government makes public its report on the rehabilitation of the families affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project.
Deputed by the Prime Minister, Soz met Patkar twice on Tuesday. Patkar has said there was a need for a national campaign to bring the focus on the plight of the people displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Dam.
"In the name of infrastructure development you cannot snatch away from the people their homes and their livelihood," she said in a brief statement.
She said while the government was working on an urban renewal mission for cities like Mumbai and Delhi, people in the villages were being removed from their homes in the name of development.
(With agency inputs)
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