At 09:38 PM 28/03/2005 -0800, Zulfiqar Halepoto wrote:
The people of Badin had organized “Peoples Assembly” on March 27, 2005 at village Sheikhani Garhi, District Badin, Sindh, Pakistan, in which a large number of local people, local bodies representatives, trade union activists, legislators, civil society groups, media and local business men participated and rejected the multi-million World bank and ADB funding Left Bank Outfall Drainage (LBOD) programme.
“Peoples Assembly” was the outcome of the peaceful protests of the affected communities, who filed an inspection request to the World Bank inspection panel for justice not knowing that these laws and justice systems are made to legitimize and protect the Banks rather than provide any relief to the people.
The panel was about to visit the field in the end of March, but Bank management managed to get false letter from Sindh government in order to postpone the investigation. When the local justice system does not work for poor, international institutions violate the fundamental rights in the name of development then people have to decide collectively for their future course of Action. This August gathering of the affected people of LBDO got tremendous response from all over the Pakistan and international collaborators/supporters for solidarity action. It has been about ten years for the people of Badin, affectees of Left Bank Outfall Drain project for crying to protect their right to life, development and livelihood. The project was funded by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank and completed with the cost of $ 1000 million. The poor country like Pakistan have to return back the loan and also bear the economic cost of the project which includes loss of agriculture land due to sea intrusion caused by Tidal Link, degradation of wetlands and decreasing income of fishermen, loss of lives and damage to agriculture crops. The losses are also in billions but no body bothers to calculate.
The donors are not taking the responsibility of the mess they have created by providing money and advice. The elite class dominates the state in Pakistan and responsible state institutions are highly corrupt. The global bureaucracy of international banks co-opts with these corrupt institutions to trap the country in debt, promote corruption and violate fundamental human rights. The poor and powerless people for whom entire development agenda formulated are the loser in this game. The thousands of People of Badin have been pushed towards extreme poverty and have been exposed to most frequent shocks.
http://www.dailyibrat.com/March%2027,%202005/articles/art-3.htm
This article of Forum for Conflict Resolution (FCR) was published in Daily Ibrat on March 27th, 2005 and will be available on Internet through Ibrat website. This article is dealing with the following aspects.
History of protest and disaster of LBOD/NDP
What is Inspection Panel (background and history)?
Why they have postponed the visit?
Role of civil society in the projection of affected people’s case
Role of District government, legislators, Media, NGOs and other groups
What should be the next steps?
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
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