Hyderabad: More than 500 residents, activists, academics and environmentalists from across India on Tuesday, March 24, wrote an open appeal to Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, demanding a comprehensive review of the Musi Riverfront Development Project and an immediate halt to large-scale displacement of communities living along the river’s banks.
The mass signature petition, initiated by the Musi Jan Andolan (MJA), a non-party people’s movement, carried an 11-point critique of the state government’s position on the project and warned that the Cabinet Sub-Committee formed to oversee it must not limit itself to “implementing a flawed riverfront model,” but must “diligently consider scientific and democratic alternatives for river rejuvenation.”
The letter was also addressed to Congress central leadership, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh and All-India Congress Committee (AICC) Telangana in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan, as well as to Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka, who chairs the newly constituted sub-committee.
While acknowledging the CM’s announcement in the state Assembly on Monday, March 23, that “all families affected by the Musi Project would be taken care of,” the signatories said the government must focus on “minimising mass displacement in the first place, instead of undertaking avoidable displacement and acquisition for a mega-commercial venture, and then granting rehabilitation.”
Among those who signed the petition are social activist Medha Patkar, ecologist Sagar Dhara, activist Shabnam Hashmi, academic Prof Rama Melkote, Fr Cedric Prakash and several others who have previously resisted riverfront projects in Gujarat, Pune and other cities.
MJA said that the petition gains urgency in the context of reports that the ground-breaking ceremony for Phase-I of the project, which involves the laying of the foundation stone for the Gandhi Sarovar, could be held as early as March 28, or April 2 if Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh accepts the CM’s invitation to attend.
The group said a 12-member delegation had met Deputy CM Vikramarka on March 12, presenting their demands ahead of the government’s unveiling of Phase-I plans the following day. The organisation, however, chose not to participate in the March 13 event, saying it was held “without prior democratic and consultative processes” and carried “a severe democratic deficit.”
The group has demanded the publication of the detailed project report (DPR) for the entire project, not just Phase I, in English, Telugu and Urdu, with a minimum 60-day window for public objections. They have also called for the immediate withdrawal of land acquisition notifications, including those issued under a 2017 state amendment that exempts projects from social impact assessments, and the restoration of the original 2013 Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act.
Other demands include public hearings in affected areas, direct dialogue between the CM and community representatives and the constitution of an independent high-level committee to review alleged violations of the 2013 Act and gaps in the Environmental Impact Assessment.
“Unless the present government openly releases the DPR and demonstrates genuine openness to reconsidering the riverfront approach, any commitment to stakeholder engagement remains superficial and amounts to mere tokenism,” the letter stated. MJA said the Musi Riverfront Project had a “decades-long history spanning multiple governments and political parties,” and urged the present dispensation not to continue the model “unquestioningly by blaming previous governments for initiating it.”
