Urgenet Letter to Jairam Rameshji on Kathikudam

NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF PEOPLE'S MOVEMENTS
A Wing First Floor, Haji Habib Building, Naigaon Cross Road Dadar (E), Mumbai-400 014 Ph. No - 9969363065; Delhi Contact: 09818905316
E-mail: napmindia@gmail.com | Web : www.napm-india.org
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6th December, 2010
To, Shri Jairam Rameshji, Hon'ble Minister Ministry of Environment and Forests Paryavaran Bhavan, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delh
Dear Shri Jairam Rameshji,
I write to you, yet again, with deep concern over the lives and livelihoods of thousands of families in the Kathikudam village and six other Gram Panchayats in the Thrissur District of Kerala who have been facing grave environmental and human risks, over the last 31 years at the hands of Nitta Gelatin India Ltd., a joint venture of the Indian and Japanese Government.
I am informed that the local people who, along with the NGIL Action Council, are waging a fierce battle against the alleged illegalities of the company, organized as a strong people’s movement in the region, have already written to you, with all the relevant documents on the eve of my second visit to the indefinite satyagraha earlier this year.
As the resolute women and men, elders and youngsters, who have been living in Chalakuddy river valley for generations challenge the hoax of 'development' by which the company made an entry into their peaceful villages and continue to resist onslaught on their air, water, soil, crops etc. which has already faced severe deterioration, they still anxiously await bold and pro-people decision making by you on this front, as in many other cases.
It goes unsaid that the NGIL which has been trampling upon the democratic protests of the local communities and has been violating every rule in the book with impunity, ignoring the binding directions of every authority; central to state, including your own Ministry must be issued a stern ultimatum to immediately clean up its act, if the faith of the common masses in the Constitution and the law of the land is to be redeemed and another Bhopal in
the South is to be averted.
The company, which is extracting millions of liters of water per day for its private use, without or rather against the consent of the Gram Panchayat and is in fact releasing untreated, highly polluting sludge of an equal amount in an unregulated manner, destroying the local agriculture, economy, river, contaminating the air and irreversibly ruining the health and well being of the people should be issued immediate stop work notice and be directed to undertake a time bound exercise to clean up the Chalakkudy river, de-toxify the affected villages and compensate the people for all the losses that they have incurred and shall have to suffer in the future.
Unless such stringent action, which itself is too late, is taken, there is little hope that either the river, the people’s rights or their faith in the rule of law can be restored. In keeping with your pro-active decision making in the case of many socio environmental challenges, ever since you took on the mantle as the Environment Minister, we hope you will immediately look into the illegalities and injustices meted out by the NGIL and do all that is needful in the interest of the people, Nature and Constitution.
Thanking You,
With regards,
Medha Patkar
Note: I enclose herewith a note on Kathikudam – Tryst with Destiny and the Jananeethi Report on NGIL depicting in detail the people's struggle against unlawful, ecologically devastating acts of the NGIL.