Police on Sunday broke up a 17-day protest against the Ken-Betwa Link and other development projects in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district by dispersing protesters and shifting movement leader Amit Bhatnagar, who has been on a fast for 11 days, to hospital after his health “worsened”.
Police justified the early morning action, citing a serious safety risk to the demonstrators from the rising level of the Barana river as the protest was being staged beneath an under-construction bridge and partly in the river.
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Protesters alleged that Bhatnagar and others were detained during the police action, a claim denied by the administration.
The protest, mainly by tribal women, had been underway since July 3 on the banks of the Barana river near Kupi village. Protesters had also staged jal satyagraha, chita (funeral pyre) satyagraha and a symbolic faansi satyagraha.
The Ken-Betwa Link Project, the country’s first river interlinking project under the National Perspective Plan, aims to transfer surplus water from the Ken to the Betwa river to provide irrigation and drinking water in the drought-prone Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
The project has faced opposition from sections of project-affected families and environmental groups over issues relating to displacement, rehabilitation and its impact on forests and wildlife, including parts of the Panna Tiger Reserve.
One of the protesters, Divya Ahirwar, alleged that police personnel reached the site in large numbers around 5 am and detained Bhatnagar and others before he could address the media regarding the alleged corruption of ₹400 crore in the project.
She said the protesters had been demanding compliance with legal and constitutional provisions in implementing the project. “The administration would be responsible if any harm came to Bhatnagar or any of the protesters,” Ahirwar added.
Additional Superintendent of Police Aditya Patle told PTI that protesters were taken in buses to their native villages.
“Those from Panna district were sent there, while those from Chhatarpur and nearby areas were dropped at their respective villages,” he added.
Patle denied that any protester had been arrested or detained.
He said Bhatnagar’s health had deteriorated because of his prolonged hunger strike, and he was admitted to the hospital for medical treatment.
The officer said the protest site was beneath an under-construction bridge and partly in the Barana River, where rising water levels posed a serious safety risk.
He said the protesters, who were largely from neighbouring Panna district, should have staged their agitation there if their grievances were related to that district.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh assembly, Umang Singhar, criticised the police action and expressed concern over Bhatnagar’s hospitalisation.
Singhar alleged that the BJP government had adopted suppression as its “model of governance” and termed the action against Bhatnagar and other protesters “completely undemocratic”.
He demanded the immediate release of all “detained” protesters and urged the government to stop what he described as repression, listen to the concerns of project-affected people and order an impartial inquiry.
“Dialogue, not repression, is the essence of democracy. Every citizen has a constitutional right to raise questions and express dissent,” Singhar said in a statement.
The administration has maintained that the Ken-Betwa Link Project is of national importance and will boost irrigation, drinking water supply and overall development in the Bundelkhand region.
The demonstrators, however, alleged that assurances given by the administration in April had not been fulfilled.
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Bhatnagar had claimed that people affected by the Ken-Betwa Link Project, as well as the Majhgaon and Runjh irrigation projects, had been denied justice.
He alleged that displaced families had lost their land, forests, water resources, livelihoods and cultural identity, while some had faced false criminal cases, illegal eviction, disconnection of electricity supply and demolition of schools.
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He demanded that the administration stop intimidating villagers and publicly display the list of project-affected families in every affected village.
