Gujarat: Tribals to fast on opening day of Statue of Unity

Tribals of around 70 villages surrounding the Statue of Unity and Kevadia, near the Sardar Sarovar Dam, will hold a fast on October 31 to mark a protest against the state government. They say that while the state is focussing on tourism, the nearby hospitals are reeling under negligence.

They have alleged that the government are yet to pay them the land compensation that was given away for the construction of the dam.

Anand Masgaonkar, who works with Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti, said only if there is a death in the family, the tribals don't cook.

"For them, the project of the Statue of Unity and the Sardar Sarovar Dam have been the death of livelihood," said Masgaonkar.

He said that when the Sardar Sarovar Project was conceptualised, 19 villages in Gujarat had been submerged for the project.

These people were given land in return for their land, but six villages had their land acquired even before the project began to create housing for the engineers. "These people never got any compensation nor were they paid at par with the 19 villages that had been compensated," he said.

He added that even among the 19 villages, farmers were given the land that is not cultivable. "The promise was that every adult in a family who lost land would be given 5-acre cultivable land. But, only a handful got it," he said.

He added that this was the case even with the 7 villages that had to give up their land for the Garudeshwar weir.

"No compensation was paid and there is no transparency in the compensation process too," said Masgaonkar.

COUNTER VIEW

Former CM Suresh Mehta said the land acquisition that took place for the statue would be considered illegal under the new land acquisition law.