Land, water, fire….Girish Kuber
Conflicts over water might well spark unrest elsewhere in Maharashtra too
Conflicts over water might well spark unrest elsewhere in Maharashtra too
After land, it’s water. The watery war near Pune that has taken three lives so far could well be the first among many in Maharashtra. Having undergone rapid industrialisation, parts of Maharashtra’s hinterland are bursting at the seams. What happened in the Maval region, where protests by villagers opposing water supply to a nearby township turned violent last week, is a manifestation of a friction that will only grow.
The battlefield near Pune exemplifies the disputes. The district houses one of the biggest of state-of-the-art IT parks at Hinjewadi, with the who’s who of the IT world present. Adjacent to it are two of the largest industrial zones in the country; you name a big corporate brand, and it’s there, from the Tatas, Mercedes, GM and Bajaj to JCB via Nestle and many others. Next to it is the country’s first planned — and controversial — hill station, Lavasa. Add to it two very big (one of which is among the richest in Asia) municipal towns: Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. All this in a district that has a record number of dams, 24. And yet, water-related issues have been unaddressed.
Farmers in the Pune district already felt that they were constantly under pressure to give up land without sufficient compensation, whether for industrial projects, or the country’s first autobahn, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, or townships. There is growing resentment in the farming community that they are being deprived of their share of the fruits of this development. Spanning the divide in the district, between the areas that have witnessed massive industrialisation and those that have been left with agricultural activity, is the political establishment — which up until now was represented by the Pawars, Maharashtra’s numero uno political dynasty.
Sharad Pawar, his daughter Supriya, and his nephew, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, represent Pune district. The elder Pawar had the uncanny knack of holding together two factions with widely differing viewpoints. That is the reason he is equally popular with the corporate class and the state’s farming community. He put the region on the world map by successfully bringing almost every big industrial house to Pune and its environs. After his nephew Ajit Pawar took over the reins of the region from him, it started losing the balance that Sharad Pawar had brought between the two interest groups. It resulted in a peculiar situation.
The township, Pimpri-Chinchwad, that has triggered the water conflict, is run by Ajit Pawar. And the region from where it is trying to draw water is the opposition’s stronghold. It was much easier for the opposition to market its you-are-always-sufferers story. The locals have every reason to believe that the government is hell-bent on diverting their water. Even before the latest dispute about the Pavana dam turned violent, allegations were levelled that the Lavasa township was allowed to “snatch” water meant for Pune city. The promoters of Lavasa and the state government tried hard to respond and clarify the situation; but many were unwilling to buy either the state’s or the company’s arguments. They would claim that there were precedents from elsewhere in the state.
The first spark was the Hetawane dam near Alibaug which was to be a part of the Maha Mumbai SEZ. Having spent over Rs 270 crore in building the Hetavane dam, the state government happily allowed the SEZ developer to appropriate it. The decision was revoked only after affected farmers went on a hunger strike, and the agitation against the state’s decision turned violent.
There are other two similar, and parallel, examples. One is in nearby Nashik, another highly industrialised — and very agriculturally rich — belt. The city has witnessed many protests of late over the state’s decision to divert a large quantity of water for a nearby SEZ, and also over a power project using the water from a dam that had been supposedly constructed to quench the city’s thirst. A similar situation arose in faraway Amravati district, part of the drought-prone Vidarbha region. In order to help farmers irrigate their parched lands, the state government constructed the Upper Wardha dam. Even before agriculture could turn 450 villages in the region green, the state government changed its mind and reserved water from the dam for a power project.
Maharashtra has over 1,800 dams. The Maharashtra government in April 2011 changed its 35-year-old policy on water usage. Earlier agricultural usage had precedence over water meant for drinking and industrial purpose. The renewed policy pushed agriculture a notch down. Yet, even though the industrial usage is last on the priority list, in practice it might well get preference over the other two, which is bound to create problems. And it links up to land too: the government pays peanuts for agricultural land, citing public purposes such as irrigation and drinking water — but in the end, can wind up handing it over to empire-builders instead.
The writer is Executive Editor, ‘Loksatta’