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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Drowned by the dam -Medha Patkar

Drowned by the dam -Medha Patkar

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published Published on Oct 7, 2017   modified Modified on Oct 7, 2017
-The Indian Express

The Sardar Sarovar Project has been dedicated to the nation. The nation must ask: Who is this development for, and at what cost?

Was the ceremonial dedication of the Sardar Sarovar Dam to the nation on September 7 a success or a failure? The answer to this question could vary. Some may be influenced by the fact that no chief minister other than Gujarat’s participated in the function. Others may point to the low-key ceremony at the dam site without the presence of 2,000 monks expected from Varanasi. Many others could go with the mainstream media’s frontpage news. Anyway, the crowd at the public meeting addressed by the prime minister at Dabhoi was small.

In fact, there are several clues that can help us decide exactly what was dedicated to the nation — the project or the dam wall. For a project to be dedicated to the nation, shouldn’t it be completed in the first place? When the project in question pertains to a dam, is it enough to raise a wall to its envisaged height or should canals be constructed as well? Only 33 per cent of the canals in Gujarat have been constructed. Can the one dedicating the project and the one receiving the project — the nation — be satisfied if the enormous impacts of the 138.68 metre-high wall on communities upstream and the downstream, about 10 lakh people, and the ecosystem are not taken into account? The nation may not be aware of what has been gifted to it, but will soon realise the betrayal.

The Sardar Sarovar Project was not planned 56 years ago as claimed by the Narendra Modi government but 38 years ago, when the Narmada Tribunal declared its award in 1979. The dam whose foundation stone was laid by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961 was a different project. It was only 162 feet (49.37 metres)in height without any conflicts, impacts — social and environmental — or a tribunal. The tribunal process for the serious resolution of conflict began much after 1961, by which time no less than six village communities had lost their land to the first-ever acquisition for the project by contractors, in fact, in 1961 itself. When they protested and joined the struggle against the project, these communities were offered a meagre cash package. The present Sardar Sarovar Project, the 455-feet dam, is to be completed by filling a huge reservoir of 40,000 hectare, ousting 244 villages and one township — partly or fully.

In an order on February 8, the Supreme Court ruled that those entitled to land should be paid a package of Rs 60 lakh. It also said that the others who had earlier received a meagre package be paid Rs 15 lakh. The Court also directed that all amenities, mandatory under law, should be in place at every resettlement site by June 2017, perhaps not realising the scale and unfeasibility of the task. The Grievance Redressal Authority was given the responsibility to receive complaints and pass orders that had to be implemented by the state authority.

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The Indian Express, 7 October, 2017, http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/drowned-by-the-dam-sardar-sarovar-narmada-narendra-modi-4878153/


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