Kanhar, 1976; Polavaram 1941. These are just two of the several dam projects that were proposed decades ago but are yet to see the light of day. Capitalist media is quick to denounce 'anti-development' activists as being the roadblocks on the glorious path of progress but there is more to it. Unlike what we are all led to believe, halting a state-sponsored project without strong legal backing isn't easy. The Supreme Court of India remains one of the country's institutions that retains respect and a reputation for being just. If some dams have been issued a stay order by the National Green Tribunal, it is not because of agitations but because the dams were environmentally and legally unsound in the first place.
A case was filed in the National Green Tribunal based on an application filed on December 22, 2014 by O.D. Singh (UP People’s Union for Civil Liberties) and Debadityo Sinha (Vindhya Bachao Abhiyan) against the UP Government and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) for carrying out construction activity of the project without statutory clearances under EIA Notification, 2006 and Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. The judgement was given on May 7, 2015.
According to Roma Malik of the All India Union of Forest Working People(AIUFWP), the deliberations of the National Green Tribunal are inconsistent with it's judgement. She says, "The people opposing the Kanhar Dam have always stated that the dam was built in an illegal manner; this has been validated by the National Green Tribunal in its judgement of May 7, 2015. The court has decided that the demands of the Dalits and Adivasis of the dam-affected villages are correct. Despite this, in just one sentence at the end, the Court issued directions to complete the existing work just to make the State happy. There is a complete stop on new construction. The reality is that all the work that is going on is new construction. Thus
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Debadityo Sinha, Vindhya Bachao Abhiyan, an applicant in the case said, "the judgment is a mixed one. While
Several projects in India carry in their trail the same sorry tale. While the judgment says that the "project is intended to provide and inject better facilities of living", it is the project affected people who will be left to negotiate their new lives over the ruins of their ravaged existence.