Letters

Crisp coverage

Each time I receive a copy of Down To Earth I am struck by its production qualities, its excellent news coverage, the wide range of its stories and its crisp debates and editorials.

The Western media was quite restrained and balanced in their reporting of the events in India, following the destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, but were soon overtaken by Pakistani publicists and NRI liberals here, who seem to have an idealised notion of what it is to be Indian and found the events of the last few months offensive to that sensibility. Not a single NRI writer dwelt even briefly on the historical and political reasons for what was going on, or on the human dimension of the problem -- the death of innocents as politicians pursued narrow designs.

I was pleased to read Down To Earth's reports on local efforts to maintain sanity in places like Okhla. You are absolutely right about the concomitants of cultural diversity. In complex societies people have to live with complex identities and this becomes possible only with the existence of local networks of cooperation and collective action that cut across ethnic, caste and class lines and make it difficult for politicians to exploit the divisive potential of such categorisation.

K SIVARAMAKRISHNAN, New Haven, Connecticut, USA ...

Thirupati threatened

Unplanned, often politically expedient and unsustainable industrial development has transformed the peaceful seaside town of Visakhapatnam into a polluted metropolis. The state-owned Hindustan Petroleum refinery alone spews about a 100 tonnes of sulphur into the atmosphere every day.

Under these circumstances, the recent steps taken by the Andhra Pradesh government at Thirupati in the name of industrial development are alarming. Thirupati now has 25 large- and medium-scale industrial units, including the railway coach works and an NRI battery-making unit. The state government has developed six industrial estates around Thirupati, bulldozing over 850 acres of the green belt. The pilgrim centre is afflicted by severe power and drinking water shortages.

It is time the state government reviewed its industrial policy before things deteriorate any further.

JACOB RAO, President, Voluntary Agency for Social Action, 11 HIG Lawsons Bay, Visakhapatnam ...

No perspective

I would like to point out that the article "Age-old method supplies water in Kasaragod" (Down To Earth, February 28, 1993) contains data that pertains to Kasaragod taluka only. They are different for the entire district of Kasaragod.

P BASAK, Centre for Water Resources Development and Management, Kozhikode, Kerala ...

Language barrier

We are a federation of voluntary agencies working as liaison agents between our members and the government and non-government institutions. As you are well aware, most of our voluntary agencies work in rural areas and are not familiar with English. Therefore, it would not be useful for them to subscribe to Down To Earth. The mass media are important because environment and science are issues that must be taken to the people at the grassroot level in languages with which they are familiar. Only then will they learn and know more about changing patterns in the world.

SURYAKANT PARIKH, Secretary, Gujarat Rajya Gram Vikas Sangh, Ahmedabad ...

Distorted campaign

The government's refusal of further World Bank funding for the Narmada project is the result of a highly distorted and misinformed campaign of criticism of the project unleashed by some environmentalists in the North and the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA). The Gujarat authorities did little to counter their propaganda blasts.

The Morse-Berger report itself is full of ambiguities, distortions and suppression of vital facts. The distortions and humiliations that the Morse-Berger report heaped on those involved in the project were further compounded by unfriendly remarks by the World Bank's executive directors of Northern Europe and America.

They have all failed to understand and appreciate that it is the World Bank's continuous involvement and close monitoring of resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) that resulted in progressive improvement of the R&R policy, which, in turn, strengthened the hands of those seeking fair R&R for the ousted tribals.

The NBA has already lost its mass support in Maharashtra villages and it is going to suffer the same fate in Madhya Pradesh because tribals want a fair R&R. Manibeli and Bamni are no longer the high profile symbols of resistance they used to be just one year ago. The NBA-North environmentalists combine will be content with nothing else than clamouring that R&R is "impossible" -- and then working to ensure the fulfillment of their prophecy so they can proclaim triumphantly, "We told you so."

The fact is that the Sardar Sarovar project can, at the most, be delayed; it cannot be stopped. Now, the vital question is: With the World Bank out, the oustee-tribals in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are nevertheless demanding a fair R&R. If the government fails to keep its promise and to force the states concerned to implement R&R in a fair manner, what will be the outcome?

ANIL PATEL, Vahini-Arch, Mangrol, Bharuch Gujarat ...

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