New Delhi, April 6
Several students and faculty members from Jawaharlal Nehru University have joined the protest by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) and expressed solidarity with Medha Patkar who is being kept in the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences after being forcibly removed from Jantar Mantar where she was on an indefinite fast.
Among those who are on an indefinite fast are Prof Kamal Mitra Chenoy, and president and the vice-president of the students’ union Mona Das and Dhananjay Tripathi, respectively. Several other students have opted for a relay fast.
“We are expressing out solidarity with the cause and the whole campus has got together to extend support to the NBA,” said Dr Rupamanjari Ghosh, president of the teachers’ association. The public meeting that would be attended by Arundhati Roy, Dhunu Roy and Alok Aggarwal would also be organised in the campus.
A section of students in the campus had earlier criticised Prof M H Qureshi of the Centre for the Study of Regional Development who was part of the committee that had proposed raising the height of the dam. Also joining the protestors are around 25 persons, including members of trade unions, children and women groups and human rights activists who are on a one-day strike.
Meanwhile the Left parties today demanded a new ‘national policy framework’ for relief and rehabilitation of the displaced people, including tribesmen and slum-dwellers.
