The Madhya Pradesh Police on Sunday morning detained Amit Bhatnagar, the leader of a protest against the Ken-Betwa river linking project, among several other demonstrators, The Indian Express reported.

The Ken-Betwa Link Project, said to be India’s first river interlinking initiative, aims to transfer surplus water from the Ken basin to the water-scarce Betwa basin to provide irrigation and drinking water to drought-prone regions of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

However, the project has sparked protests on account of alleged irregularities in land acquisition, rehabilitation and compensation for families affected by the project. The protest had been going on in the Kupi village of Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district for the past two weeks. Bhatnagar, a social activist, was on an indefinite hunger strike for 14 days.

On Sunday, Chhatarpur Additional Superintendent of Police Aditya Patle told The Indian Express that Bhatnagar was not arrested, but detained, and then taken to the local hospital for treatment. Around 150 protesters were detained and transported to Panna district in buses, the newspaper quoted Patle as saying.

“Our investigation showed these are not people from the locality but from Panna who had issues with other dam projects,” the official was quoted as saying by the newspaper. “So we detained them and sent them to Panna.”

Before his detention, Bhatnagar told The Indian Express that the government has not been fair and transparent in its land acquisition process.

He claimed the proceedings registers of the gram panchayats in Ratiya, Kari, Khatwani, Palkhua, Naiyyapur, Khajuri and Sukwaha contained identical, word-for-word entries. The activist also claimed that several gram sabha meetings were recorded as having taken place simultaneously at 11.30 am on February 17 and 18, 2022, raising questions about the authenticity of the proceedings.

The protests

Earlier, a group of protesters, mainly tribal women, launched a jal satyagraha, standing waist-deep in the Barana river, and a chita satyagraha, in which they were seen floating on symbolic funeral pyres in the river, PTI reported.

On the eighth day of the agitation, they also launched a symbolic faansi satyagraha, wearing nooses around their necks to protest their alleged displacement, loss of livelihoods and inadequate compensation.

On Sunday, videos on social media showed police officers at the protest site, dressed in riot gear, urging the protesters to call off the agitation. Meanwhile, the protesters waded into the Barana river to keep their distance from the force.

The project

To be implemented in two phases over eight years, the project includes the construction of the Daudhan Dam, a link canal and associated infrastructure, and is also expected to generate hydropower, according to the Ministry of Jal Shakti.

The project will cost Rs 44,605 crore and requires the displacement of nearly 2,000 families from villages falling within the reservoir’s submergence, The Indian Express reported.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Also read: Where is the data to support the government's rationale for linking the Ken and Betwa rivers?