"In India there are hundred smart cities that are going to be developed. The (World) Bank is in it as it is said in one of the research documents of the 'Ambanis' the name is known because they are Indian multinationals," Patkar said during a panel discussion on 'Emerging Lessons on Environmental Assessment' being held on the sidelines of the Spring Meeting of the World Bank.
Patkar said it was not just road widening, it was demolishing the cultures, demolishing the habitats and undermining the very existence, rights and role of the hundred years old community who were not only not consulted but were just written off.
The World Bank is involved in India's ambitious Smart City projects in multiple ways including funding and sharing of technological expertise. In her remarks, the well-known Indian social activist rued about the dangers of development being carried in the name of Smart City projects in India.
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"So, delineating that context the largest of the map which would include not just the various categories of people but the various projects and the sub projects which would have the impacts rolling out," 62-year-old social activist said.
"That may happen after five years or ten years where if you raise a question, you are considered as a fool or just an opponent or the Maoist as the Vedanta opposing tribal communities were just called yesterday in one of the reports for the Ministry of Home Affairs in India," she said.
It is not something like the Old Seattle experiment, it is the present time experience that the communities are going through, the Narmada Bachao Andolan leader said.
Patkar said the screening and scoping is always the inappropriate and unacceptable sequence at this point.
"It has to be scoping first and screening later. How can one decide the category A, B or C without really drawing the full scope of impacts and also the feasibility of solutions at least at the primary or the preliminary level," she said.
So it's just changing of laws, changing of definitions or making it more inclusive that can bring certain impacts and certain kind of projects in a different category, the environmentalist said.
"It is necessary that the first and foremost scoping exercise needs to be taken very seriously otherwise the downstream impact of the dams for example, generally when the downstream people raise an issue related to the environmental flows of the sea ingress," she said.
The sea coming in and salinising the ground water and surface water is something that becomes a faint after 20 or 30 years as it is happening in Narmada today, she said.
When the catchment area treatment remains on paper, in the case of a dam, one cannot even say that it is compensating or mitigating the acceptation risks and related impact on the lifespan of the project itself, she said.
"It is therefore necessary that the options assessment is taken with much more depth and much more understanding to be able to make the right kind of technological choice. It's not technological in that sense, it has the social and environmental impacts which differ a lot and that is rarely happening," Patkar added.
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