80 % construction complete, but only 3 % rehabilitation has been done  The Environment Ministry has issued a show cause notice to the company building the Maheshwar Dam in the Narmada Valley after hundreds of affected people marched to the Ministry demanding rehabilitation. According to the notice, if the company cannot explain why 80 per cent of construction is over even while rehabilitation efforts lag behind, the project could be...

The projection by the international water resources group that India will have a water deficit of as much as 50 per cent by 2030 is a wake-up call for policymakers. As early as in 1999, the National Commission on Integrated Water Resources Development had issued a similar warning, albeit without assigning any numbers, and had called for urgent measures to cope with the emerging crisis. The report of the “2030...

Writes to Madhya Pradesh CM about Maheshwar clearance  Proposes to stop construction work on the dam ‘Lack of progress on relief & rehabilitation front’ BHOPAL: Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has written to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan informing him of “grave violations” of the conditions for environmental clearance given for the Maheshwar dam project by the MoEF under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. As a...