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dam-l dams commission refused entry to India
The Indian government is making life difficult for the new World Commission
on Dams, which was intending to visit the Sardar Sarovar dam site and hold
its second meeting in Bhopal. There is a chance that the entire plan will
be scrapped and the meeting will he hastily rescheduled for Cape Town.
from the hindu
Friday, September 11, 1998
Sarovar Dam visit cancelled
GANDHINAGAR, Sept. 10.
After succeeding in forcing the World Commission on
Dams to cancel its visit to the Sardar Sarovar dam,
the Gujarat Government today claimed that it was on its
plea that the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari
Vajpayee, had directed the Planning Commission to ask
the Commission to defer its proposed visit.
The State Narmada Affairs minister, Mr. Jaynarayan
Vyas, who along with the Chief Minister, Mr.
Keshubhai Patel, and others called on Mr. Vajpayee in
New Delhi yesterday, told presspersons here
today that the Prime Minister fully appreciated the
State Government's stand on the commission's
proposed visit to the country from September 19 to be
``inopportune time.''
Mr. Vajpayee agreed with Mr. Patel that when the
Supreme Court was seized with the Narmada dam
issue, the visit by the World Commission on Dams in
which one of the petitioners, Ms. Medha Patkar,
was a member, could prejudice the apex court's
judgment. Mr. Vyas said Mr. Vajpayee agreed to
communicate to the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman,
Mr. Jaswant Singh, the Centre's view that
the commission be asked to postpone its visit to some
later date.
Mr. Vyas accordingly wrote a letter to Mr. Singh today
informing him about the Prime Minister's views
on the issue and requesting him to write the letter to
the commission chairman, Prof. Kader Aslam, at the
earliest since only nine days were left before the
proposed visit. He pointed out that since the World
Commission on Dams programme was communicated through
the Planning Commission, Mr. Singh
should inform Prof. Aslam about the Prime Minister's
views on the visit.
The Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, who
represents the Gandhinagar constituency in Gujarat
in the Lok Sabha, the Union Textiles Minister, Mr.
Kashiram Rana, and the Union Minister of State for
Chemicals, Dr. A. K. Patel, both from Gujarat, were
also present during the Chief Minister's meeting
with Mr. Vajpayee and agreed with the State
Government's views on the proposed visit.
The Dam Commission, which earlier indicated its desire
to visit the Sardar Sarovar dam on September 17
prior to its New Delhi and Bhopal confabulations, has
already informed the State Government that the trip
to the SSP had been cancelled ``till the Gujarat
Government issued an official invitation.'' Mr. Patel, who
had refused to recognise the commission as an official
world body, was in no mood to oblige it.
The Assembly is meeting here tomorrow for a day's
special session to adopt a resolution to reflect the
sentiments of the people of Gujarat against the
proposed visit and record their anguish against any attempt
to further delay the implementation of the dam project,
described as the ``lifeline of Gujarat''.
Even as the State Government had earlier decided to
boycott the proceedings of the dam commission, if
allowed to visit the country, surprisingly, the former
chairman of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada
Development Corporation and a technocrat, Dr. C. C.
Patel, who is associated with the Narmada project
in various capacities for a long time, has decided to
appear before the commission in Bhopal to present a
paper on large dams in the country. Dr. Patel, however,
maintained that he would present the paper in his
individual capacity and not as the representative of
the State Government and the paper would not discuss
about the Narmada dam but the large dams in general.
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Gujarat House to discuss dams panel visit
GANDHINAGAR, Sept. 9.
A special one-day session of the Assembly has been
convened on September 11 with the lone agenda to
discuss the State's stand on the proposed visit of the
World Commission on Dams under the
chairmanship of the South African Minister for Water
Resources, Prof. Kader Aslam.
The Assembly session at a short notice has been
convened by the Governor, Mr. Anshuman Singh, the recommendation of the
Chief Minister, Mr. Keshubhai Patel, even as doubts are expressed about the
visit
of the commission members to the Sardar Sarovar project
on the Narmada river at Kevadiya Colony.
The commission's revised programme announced from its
Cape Town headquarters on Monday does not
include a visit to the SSP.
The 12-member commission is scheduled to hold a meeting
in New Delhi on September 19 and 20
followed by two-day open house session in Bhopal.
The decision to convene a special session of the
Assembly was taken at an all-party meeting held last
week under the chairmanship of Mr. Patel and attended
by the representatives of the Congress(I), the
Rashtriya Janata Party and others.
The meeting not only expressed the State's strong
reservations against the commission's visit, but also
authorised the Chief Minister to take any step the
Government deemed fit to prevent the ``anti- Narmada''
commission members from visiting the State.
The State Government accordingly had imposed a ban on
the entry of the commission members to the
State. At a meeting of the Narmada Foundation on Monday
night the Chief Minister warned the
commission members that the Government would not
hesitate to put them under arrest if any attempt was
made to enter the State.
The Narmada Bachao Andolan leader, Ms. Medha Patkar, a
member of the commission, resented the
State's action and hoped that the Government would act
with ``more openness.''
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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