BHOPAL: Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar suspected on Thursday a deeper conspiracy behind the recent show cause notice served to her by the Mumbai Regional Passport Office (RPO) about concealing of information pertaining to nine criminal cases pending against her in three districts of Madhya Pradesh.
On day six of the indefinite dharna led by her in Bhopal for the cause of villagers in 178 villages of MP, who have been displaced/adversely affected by the Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) project of adjoining Gujarat, the NBA leader said, “I think this is a much deeper conspiracy, which needs to be found out. Already corporate group representatives, as well as representatives of some governments, are against us. Vested interests are working actively to defame public agitations/movements and trying to find one or another reason to put those participating in these movements behind bars,” said Patkar.
“We’re exposing the realities pertaining to the SSD project and its killer impact on lives of villagers in MP and the SC too has directed to convene the meeting of CMs of all four states over the issue. Hence it’s quite possible that this development could be part of a bigger conspiracy to divert public attention from the real issues,” she maintained.
According to Patkar, she has already responded to the Mumbai RPO notice dated October 18, 2019. “I’ve clearly mentioned in my Nov 2 reply that out of the nine cases which have been shown pending against me in Barwani, Alirajpur and Khandwa districts of MP, I’ve already been acquitted in three of these cases. As far as the cases pending in Khandwa District Court are concerned, I don’t remember being summoned or arrested in any of these cases nor remember having been made an accused in these cases.”