Friday, April 12, 2019<\/p>\n
Counterview Desk
\nAs many as 34 civil society organizations of Madhya Pradesh, forming Jan Sangharsh Samanvay Samiti, have, through a statement, put forward a list of demands before candidates fighting the Lok Sabha elections, ranging from abandoning new plans to have coal-based power plants to suspending fresh dams on the Narmada river in view of sharp deceleration in the flow of water.
\nText of statement:
\nIn the context of the upcoming general election, a two days consultation was organized by Mahegi Bijali Abhiyan \u2013 Madhya Pradesh and National Alliance of People\u2019s Movement \u2013 Madhya Pradesh on \u201cEnergy and Infrastructure Development \u2013 a Democratic Process\u201d in Jabalpur.
\nMore than 55 people from 30 people\u2019s organisations and grassroots groups from across Madhya Pradesh which are resisting mega energy and infrastructure construction projects in their respective areas participated in the consultation.
\nThe two-day consultation process ended with the community leaders from these groups came out with specific demands related to energy and water sector development projects and their financing mechanisms.
\nA state-level coordination committee was formed which has been formally named as \u2013 Madhya Pradesh Jan-Sangharsh Samanvay Samiti, it is an umbrella forum which looks to represent grassroots groups and people\u2019s organisations questioning, critiquing and resisting mega infrastructure projects in energy and water sector in Madhya Pradesh.
\nThe state level co-ordination committee resolved and prepared demands of these groups which will be put forth to all the people\u2019s representatives as part of the democratic process. The groups also agreed to present these demands and get it passed through Gram Sabhas resolutions in the state on April 14, 2019 when the next gram sabha would convene. Thereafter, all the 30 groups will ask all the people\u2019s representatives during the general elections to accept and formally agree to them, so as to ensure support and encouragement of the local community members.
\nThe committee will also meet the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and the concerned ministers to discuss the resolution in the near future. The committee will also hold briefings and meetings in Bhopal and other regions of the state in this regard.
\nResolution and demands presented to the people\u2019s representatives:
\nIn Madhya Pradesh the installed capacity of electricity is double than demand, therefore, now there is no need to approve new coal-based power plant, hydropower plant, and nuclear projects.
\nSuch projects where land has been acquired for power projects, but so far the work on the projects has not been started, the acquired land should be returned to original landowners\/ tenants.
\nPower projects where there has been no power purchase agreement, Coal Linkages, water linkage and financial closure, such projects should be cancelled immediately.
\nWater conservation, protection and rehabilitation of water resources should be promoted across the state with urgency and should be given priority in the areas where water problems are arising due to pollution, encroachment, diversion, etc of water supply to power\/ industrial projects. The basic right to water should be ensured in the state specifically water for drinking and irrigation should be ensured for all.
\nThe privatisation of water services for drinking water and irrigation should be stopped in the name of reforms and privatised water services to be returned to public agencies.
\nConsidering the decreasing water flows in the Narmada river, all the big construction projects should be stopped immediately in the Narmada basin. Catchment areas of Narmada and its tributaries should be protected from pollution and sand mining, efforts to be encouraged to maintain annual water flows in these rivers.
\nAll the existing projects which are approved\/ cleared by the government under the environmental conditions should ensure compliance of the conditions in the area.
\nEnsure the rehabilitation of all families displaced from various mega construction projects and immediately stopping any proposed displacement.
\nTo cancel immediately all the false cases imposed on people who are resisting against these mega projects.
\nThe Madhya Pradesh government land in villages should be declared as Gram Sabhaproperty under the Madhya Pradesh Panchayati Raj and Gram Swaraj acts 1993 and 2001.
\nThe new land acquisition act has provision to provide 4 times the compensation from the current rate, however, Madhya Pradesh government is providing only 2 times compensation which is against the new act. According to the act four times, compensation should be ensured.
\nThe Madhya Pradesh government is selling electricity to other states at INR 2.60 per unit. Therefore, electricity at the same rate should also be available to the people of Madhya Pradesh.
\nAll the loans from power projects or companies which are declared under stressed assets or have become non-performing assets, the full amount of it should be recovered without any haircut or write off.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday, April 12, 2019 Counterview Desk As many as 34 civil society organizations of Madhya Pradesh, forming Jan Sangharsh Samanvay Samiti, have, through a statement, put forward a list of demands before candidates fighting the Lok Sabha elections, ranging from abandoning new plans to have coal-based power plants to suspending fresh dams on the Narmada […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[3,53],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paUKPQ-35b","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11853"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11855,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11853\/revisions\/11855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}