Submergence Village: Chotabadada, Madhya Pradesh
Rukmani (Kaki), “The Maheshwar struggle is also against a Dam. What the Sardar Sarovar is, the Mandleshwar project is also similar. So we had to go there. We had to lend support. If we just cling to Sardar Sarovar, then there too that dam would get ready. They are also our people. We have to support them too. We have to work everywhere.”
Rukmikaki explains in her interview the significance and work of the NBA of spreading its base from the Sardar Sarovar Project area to the other dams in the Narmada Valley and her role in building the powerful people’s resistance against the Maheshwar Hydro Power project. Besides talking about her own role in mobilising the Maheshwar dam affected people, she talks of the role of the other NBA activists in this struggle. She also talks of the many innovative and powerful programs taken up against the Maheshwar dam, including the capture of the dam site, blocking roads so that the dam material does not reach the dam site, the state repression that the people faced, taking over of the jail premises and other details of this very successful struggle.
This interview on the website is the only one that throws light on a struggle other than the one against the SSP, i.e. the Maheshwar dam struggle. This interview is important because the core members of the NBA have helped build struggles against other dams on the River Narmada out of the experience and insights they gained from the struggle against the SSP.
Interview Duration: 00:38:00
Language: Hindi, Subtitles in English
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