Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) on Monday asked promoters of upcoming Maheshwar power project in Madhya Pradesh to comply with the report of Environment Ministry and rehabilitate displaced people befo

The protest by Omkareshwar oustees illustrates development without humanity. (Editorial)

If the hundreds displaced in the Narmada valley owe the good deal they got to the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), there are thousands of others who have been deprived of benefits they would potential

While a ministerial committee began hearing grievances of oustees of the Omkareshwar dam in Madhya Pradesh, Narmada Bachao Andolan activists met President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday.

Barely a couple of hours after police evicted protesters from a 'Jal Satyagraha' today, about 50 persons from villages near Khardana entered the Narmada river demanding reduction of the Indira Saga

Bowing before villagers, protesting in neck-deep water of the Narmada for the last 17 days, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday announced reduction in the water level of Omkareshwar dam

Bowing to pressure following sustained television coverage of the Narmada Bachao Andolan’s ‘Jal Satyagraha’, the Madhya Pradesh government on Monday lowered the water level in the Omkareshwar reser

M.P. government agrees to demands of Omkareshwar Dam oustees

Oustees of the Omkareshwar Dam project called off their jal satyagraha on Monday after the Madhya Pradesh government accepted all their demands and constituted a ministerial committee to look into their grievances. On the 17th day of the protest, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan announced that the government had agreed to the key demands of the agitators — reducing the water level of the dam to 189 metres and providing land for land compensation to all those who had lost their land.

The Madhya Pradesh government has said the filling of the Omkareshwar dam poses no threat to human life even as the Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission (MPHRC) directed the government to ensure the safety of the protesters.

The government’s statement comes in the wake of the ongoing jal satyagraha protest of the project affected people of the Omkareshwar dam in the East Nimaar region (Khandwa district), where oustees have been standing in the rising dam water for the last seven days.

As many as 250 people affected by the Omkareshwar dam project have been standing in waist-deep water since Saturday night, even as the water level continues to rise.

The oustees announced their jal satyagraha protest last month at Ghogalgaon village in the East Nimar region against the Madhya Pradesh government’s decision to raise the water level in the dam from 189 to 193 metres. The 520-MW Omkareshwar project is one of the several big dams on the Narmada. The current water level is 189 metres and the protesters fear that if filled beyond that level, the dam would submerge their lands spread across several villages.

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