Damming India - Eminent Domain At Its Worst

More dams, more forests submerged and villages displaced.

All done with utter contempt for the people who will have to give up their livelihoods and social and cultural bonds and ways of life.

Shripad Dharmadhikari documents another misguided and utterly ill thought out dam project in Himachal Pradesh which is being built to make up for the water wastage of Delhi city. Land is being acquired from villages even before the project has been cleared by relevant authorities under the "urgency" clause. This is a particularly nasty form of land acquisition - eminent domain- which curtails the right of land owners to object to the acquisition process.

Think about what is happening. This project still does not have the clearance of the Ministry of Environment and Forests but the process of acquiring land at unjust prices has already started!

We boast so often of becoming a world power and a tier one nation. But bullying one's own people into submission is not development and not a sign of a mature civilization.