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A 15-day protest against the Ken-Betwa Link Project and other development works in Madhya Pradesh's Chhatarpur district ended on Sunday after police cleared the demonstration site and transported protesters to their respective villages.

The agitation, led largely by tribal women, had been underway since 3 July on the banks of the Barana river near Kupi village. Protesters staged various forms of demonstration, including jal satyagraha, chita satyagraha (funeral pyre protest) and a symbolic faansi satyagraha, while protest leader Amit Bhatnagar had been on an indefinite hunger strike for the past 11 days.

Protesters allege detentions

Protest leader Divya Ahirwar alleged that a heavy police contingent reached the site around 5 am on Sunday and detained Bhatnagar along with several protesters before he could address the media. She claimed the action was intended to suppress allegations of corruption worth Rs 400 crore in the implementation of the project.

However, Additional Superintendent of Police Aditya Patle denied that any arrests or detentions had been made. He said protesters were transported by buses to their native villages, with those from Panna district taken back there and others dropped in Chhatarpur and nearby areas.

Patle said a team of doctors accompanied police and district officials to conduct medical examinations of those at the protest site.

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"A team of doctors came here along with the police and the administration so that they could conduct a basic medical check-up. The women who were present here were also peacefully seated in buses and dropped back to their homes because this is an under-construction bridge, and due to the rains, the river's water level has risen. Therefore, the area was not considered safe, so they were moved from the site," he said.

Rehabilitation, displacement concerns

The protest was directed against the Ken-Betwa river-linking project and other development initiatives. Demonstrators alleged irregularities in land acquisition, rehabilitation, environmental safeguards and project implementation.

Bhatnagar claimed that families affected by the Ken-Betwa Link Project, as well as the Majhgaon and Runjh irrigation projects, had been denied justice. He alleged that displaced communities had lost land, forests, water sources, livelihoods and cultural identity, while some villagers had faced false criminal cases, forced evictions, power disconnections and the demolition of schools.

The protesters also alleged that assurances made by the administration in April had not been fulfilled. They demanded that authorities stop intimidating villagers and publicly display the list of project-affected families in every village.

The administration rejected the allegations, maintaining that the project is being implemented in accordance with the law. It described the Ken-Betwa Link Project as a nationally significant initiative aimed at improving irrigation, drinking water supply and overall development in the drought-prone Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

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