Who would want to enter into the soiled temple of Justice, wherein lies the coprse of Justice, slain by her very guardians. (Rohinton Mistry)

Justice is mocked and slained whenever the powerful refuses to respect and obey the laws that he make himself. The case of chashma inspection is not quite different.

We filed the inspection claim and continued to engage in this process with the hope that ADB would at least respect its accountability laws and thus accept the verdict of its own appointed inspection panel. We were of the view that ADB would be keen to learn from its obvious project failures and take corrective actions. We believed that the inspection process would provide leverage to local communities and open the space for their real and meaningful participation in decision-making process.

However, very soon, our hopes turned into utter despair. After four years, the situation on the ground is as much oppressive and devastating as before. Few points will be suffice to elaborate this ever growing alarming situation.

For last four years, the project-caused flooding continued to turn the once fertile and very productive vast Indus riverine belt into desert. Agriculture is completely destroyed in this region. Hundereds of houses, tube wells, schools and hospital buildings and local roads have been demolished or severely damaged. Majority of the people have not yet been paid rightful and just compensation for their lands that were illegaly and forcibly acquired under he British colonial laws. Rather, they are compelled to pay 25 percent commission as a bribe to get their compensation. The resettlement plan has never been prepared. The villages in the western belt are still living in danger flooding zone. Forests and grazing lands have been destroyed while a large number of people once depending on these natural resources for their subsitence are now left to cope with this situation themselves. These are just few examples.

Precisely speaking, the situation is alarming in terms of flooding, environmental destruction and livelihoods losses and, will continue to become worst unless genuine efforts to ensure peoples' participation in decision-making are not undertaken.

ADB proclaims that the establishment of the Grievance Redress and Settlement Commitee (GRSC) is one of its major achievements. However, this claim is nothing more than self-delusion. The GRSC was established against the advice of the Roster member at the initial stage of inspection. Moreover, ADB failed to create enabling conditions for the meaningful and effective participation of the requesters and representatives of local communities in decision-making of the GRSC. At the time of the GRSC's mid term review, the ADB's consultant for land acquisition alleged the serious corruption in the use of the grant money. He was fired and his contract was terminated. Later on, the inspection panel did also confirm the inadequacy of the GRSC and its doubtful achievements.

After this long and disappointing engagement, we feel that the inspection laws are rather only beneficial to ADB in terms of getting fake legitimacy and credibility, and controlling and diffusing opposition of local communities. The worst aspects of this situation is that the requesters and local communities are exposed to the coercion of the government while they get nothing substantial in terms of the compensation of their losses.

We believe the only way to make the accountability laws credible and trustworthy is the open confession of policy violations that will lead to the genuine cooperation. Otherwise, nobody would want to enter into this soiled temple of Justice.

(Specific comments on the BIC Report are attached).

With best regards,

Mushtaq Gadi

Inspection Requester (Chashma Lok Sath)