The onset of the monsoon has sparked an exodus from the central Indian town of Harsud, which is facing submersion by a new dam, but thousands of families are still refusing to budge, an official said on Thursday.
With the waters rising and Wednesday’s deadline given by the Madhya Pradesh state authorities for the 6 166 affected families to move to safer ground already past, only about 2 430 households have resettled, said state water resources minister Anoop Mishra.
Residents of Harsud and about 120 surrounding villagers had been warned they would have to move when work on the Indira Sagar dam on the river Narmada got under way as long as a decade ago.
Mishra said 95 of the villages have been vacated and 25 508 of the total 28 798 families affected in the area have been resettled.
But thousands of families in Hardsud, about 235km from the state capital, Bhopal, are still refusing to move despite the offer of relocation packages ranging from 20 000 rupees to 500 000 rupees ($440 to $11 000) if they moved voluntarily before June 30.
Some residents said they will not move because the compensation is inadequate, while others do not believe the waters will reach their houses. Still others nostalgically said they will wait until the last minute before leaving their ancestral homes.
A local official said heavy rains in central India due to the monsoon season have caused the waters of the dam to rise to 72m and once it crossed the 74,6m mark, Harsud will be completely submerged.
The dam is being built to generate 1 000 megawatts of electricity to help meet Madhya Pradesh’s power shortfall.
Those who have moved, meanwhile, complained that facilities in the new settlement area, in nearby Chanera village, are inadequate and that the settlement lacks roads, power lines, water and schools.
According to the former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, who ruled the state for a decade, Harsud’s residents are to blame for their predicament.
”They refused the construction of a protective wall around the town, which would have prevented submergence,” Singh told reporters after a visit to the town this week.
But people argued that they refused to build the wall because Harsud would then have become an island.
Singh also criticised the present Hindu nationalist state government for the poor facilities at the resettlement centres.
Those resigned to move were seen this week tearing down doors, window panels and whatever else they could salvage from their houses.
Caravans of buses and trucks loaded with goods were seen leaving the town, which ceased to exist in the official records of Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday. — Sapa-AFP