In a historic move, struggle groups against water privatization
from different states came together in Nagpur and formed a national platform to
fight against water privatization in India. In a daylong meeting organised by
Citizen’s Front for Water Democracy (Delhi) and Focus on the Global South
(Delhi) in collaboration with Nagpur Municipal Corporation Employees Union,
more than 70 water activists from Delhi, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Karnataka launched formation of a National Platform.
After a marathon session the meeting passed a resolution declaring formation of NATIONAL PLATFORM AGAINST WATER PRIVATIZATION
(NPAWP).The meeting also came
out with a Nagpur Declaration, a policy statement of the NPAWP giving
details about its visions and objectives in the context of people’s right to
water (Copy attached).
In this meeting, a national coordination committee was
also constituted which elected Shri S.A Naqvi of Citizens Front for Water
Democracy (CFWD, Delhi) as the National Coordinator of NPAWP. Besides
Mr. Naqvi, the others who constituted the National Coordination Committee
include Shri Jammu Anand of NMC Municipal Union, Nagpur as Regional Coordinator
for Western Zone; Smt. Nirmla Sharma of Jagriti Mahila Samiti (Delhi) as
Regional Coordinator for Northern Zone; Shri Rajinder Prabhakar of Peoples
Campaign on Right to Water (Karnataka) for Southern Zone; Shri Subrato Chakrabarti
of Guwahati Sanmilita Nagarik Adhikar Suraksha Manacha for North Eastern Zone;
Shri Saurabh Sinha of Inner Voice Foundation of Ballia for Eastern zone and Mr.
Rahmat Rawat of Manthan (Badwani) as Regional Coordinator for Central Zone.
Besides regional coordinators, the others who are part of the national
coordination committee include Raman Kanan of Public Services International,
Afsar Jafri of Focus on the Global South, Dr. A.K. Arun of Yuva Bharat, Akhil
Gogoi of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, Ms Kiran Shaheen of Pani Hakk Abhiyan,
Gaurav Diwedi of Manthan, Sanjay Sharma of Water Workers Allaince, Pranjal
Dixshit of Mumbai and Vinay Baindur of Bangalore.
On 1st July, the National Platform against Water Privatization and the NMC Municipal Union staged a demonstration
against water privatization in Nagpur and met with the Municipal Commissioner
of Nagpur in his office and gave a memorandum demanding for the immediate
termination of the contract with the Orange City Water. It also demanded for
the remunicipalisation of the water supply and distribution in Nagpur.
The national platform
is a unique initiative to build solidarity among different movements and
campaigns from India who are engaged in any activities related to water to
ensure water as a common good and determine human rights to water. This
national body of water activists also decided to extend all support to
movements opposing dams, river diversions or river linking.
The fight against any form of water privatization will be the
key agenda of the NATIONAL PLATFORM. It will help each other and seek strength from each other in
this difficult time when democratic governments in the states have been sold
out to corporations. The national platform will contact with different groups
who are campaigning against water privatization in their cities to come
together. They will share their experiences, documents and strategies to gain
strength and knowledge from each other.
The NPAWP will soon initiate mass movement against government’s
undemocratic moves to privatize and commodify water. The NPAWP decided to raise
all issues relating to water like its environmental aspects, ecological
concerns, dams, rivers etc and oppose all forms of water commercialization.
The NPAWP through a resolution rejected the National Water
Policy of 2012 as well as the draft report issued recently by the Y.K. Alagh
Committee, the National Water Framework Laws, which promotes privatization of
water.
The NPAWP also declared the Uttrakhand disaster as man-made
disaster and a result of callus and anti environment policies of the Central
and the State Governments. It passed a resolution opposing such infrastructure
development anywhere in India which compromises environmental concerns for the
sake of growth and development.
The next meeting of the Platform will be organised in Delhi
soon.
Thanks for covering this press briefing.
For any further information, please contact
S.A.
Naqvi Jammu Anand Afsar Jafri
No comments:
Post a Comment