THE ACTIVISTS of All India Students’ Association (AISA) and Inquilab Naujawan Sabha (INSA) staged a demonstration and burnt the effigy of the Union Government outside the Cantonment railway station on Saturday in support of Narmada Bachav Andolan activist Medha Patkar’s ongoing indefinite hunger strike in New Delhi.
It may be mentioned that Medha Patkar is leading an agitation on behalf of villagers displaced by the Narmada river dam project. She is demanding stoppage of work on increasing the height of the dam to 121.92 metres from the current 113 metres till the project affected people are rehabilitated.
The activists were raising slogans like “Kendra Sarkar Hosh Mein Aao”, ‘Vikas Ke Nam Par Garibo Ko Ujadna Band Karo”, “Loktantrik Andolan Ka Daman Bardasht Nahi” etc during the demonstration.
The activists strongly criticised the Union Government for its failure to rehabilitate thousands of displaced people whose houses were going to be submerged due to the height of the dam.
State secretary of All India Students Assocaition Manish Sharma said that the height of dams should be increased only after proper rehabilitation of the villagers of the affected areas.
Sharma said that instead of assuring proper rehabilitation of villagers of affected areas, the Union Government was implicating Medha Patkar and two other activists who were on hunger strike for the last 10 days, in a suicidal attempt case.
{{/usCountry}}Sharma said that instead of assuring proper rehabilitation of villagers of affected areas, the Union Government was implicating Medha Patkar and two other activists who were on hunger strike for the last 10 days, in a suicidal attempt case.
{{/usCountry}}District coordinator of Inquilab Naujawan Sabha Vivek Yadav backed Medha Patkar and said that the Union Government was crushing democratic movements in the name of development.
He alleged that the Union Government was displacing the poorer people in the name of development on the behest of the benefits of the multinational companies.
Other prominent leaders including Gagan Prakash Yadav, Vijay Raj Yadav, Sarita Patel, Deepak Mishra etc strongly condemned the Union Government for trying to crush the ongoing movement of Medha Patkar in an undemocratic way.