Parsa, Chhattisgarh: Banmati, a middle-aged woman from Parsa village in Udaipur block, Chhattisgarh, looks distraught.
Situated close to the Parsa East & Kenta Basen (PEKB) block, the village of Parsa is facing the environmental consequences of coal mining.
In 2013, the Adani Group’s subsidiary, Adani Mining, started extracting coal from PEKB.
However, the Supreme Court ordered suspension of the mining operations for the PEKB block (Civil Appeal No.
The people of Parsa are completely dependent on the company for their daily drinking water needs.
The villagers claimed that when someone from one part of the village submits a complaint, the water supply from another part of the village is diverted temporarily.
The panchayat leadership, once persuaded by the rhetoric of mining-led development, has now reached a breaking point since they receive constant calls from company officials asking them to ‘take over’ the provision of water supply.
We will not take responsibility for the water unless they build a water tank for this village like they initially promised.” The denial of constant supply of drinking water only brought to the surface the latent discontent and anger of the villagers.
Geeta Bai, who had to part with her land, found herself tasked with cleaning toilets at the company.
For the moment, what they say they want urgently is clean water from Adani Mining.