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dam-l LS: States to re-examine Narmada rehabilitation
[THE HINDU]
Tuesday, February 16, 1999
SECTION: National
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States to re-examine Narmada rehabilitation
Date: 16-02-1999 :: Pg: 12 :: Col: e
By Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Feb. 15.
For the first time since the Sardar Sarovar Project on Narmada
has been conceived, the riparian States of Gujarat,
Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have admitted - in their own
way - that rehabilitation of the oustees had been faulty or
not done. As per the Narmada Tribunal award, rehabilitation
and resettlement should have been pari passu with construction
Books of the dam, but the project had been pushed ahead for emotive
reasons.
[Logo]
Easy way The M.P. Chief Minister, Mr. Digvijay Singh, has recently said
to start again that it was not possible to rehabilitate the thousands
an of tribals who would be displaced by various dams on Narmada
Industry in the State. He has demanded setting up of another tribunal
to study the cost-benefit impact of Sardar Sarovar project in
view of the reduction in flows. Recently, Mr S.C. Shukla, who
was in charge of the State when the project was being
conceived had conceded that the height of the SSP dam be
restricted to limit the number of displacements.
The Maharashtra Government has also recently passed a
resolution appointing a Land Purchase Committee to purchase
private land to rehabilitate oustees. In the resolution, it
has admitted that some of the oustees from 1992 were either
settled on already encroached land or not resettled at all.
The Gujarat Government has also suo moto appointed a Grievance
Redressal Committee within the State to take note of the
oustees to be settled or already settled. Of the families
settled in Gujarat, many had returned to their home State of
Maharashtra for lack of facilities or hostile social environs.
However, this is not to say that the State Governments which
have been rather cavalier about rehabilitation in the past
have turned a new leaf. It is likely that they have been
pushed into taking action as the SSP project was locked in a
legal battle with the Narmada Bachao Andolan, which has sought
a complete review of the project, particularly about the cost-
benefit analysis, claims of benefits, environmental concerns
and state of rehabilitation and resettlement of oustees and
alternatives.
The fact remains that the Narmada dam project is one of the
largest in the country and will involve displacement of a
whole lot of people who may or may not be the beneficiaries of
the project. More than 40,000 families are likely to be
displaced by construction of 30 large dams, 135 medium dams
and 3000 small projects. Of these, 33,000 families will be
displaced in M.P. alone. The SSP will be the largest and the
only dam in Gujarat. All the rest will be constructed in
Madhya Pradesh, which has to cope with the largest ever
displacement of people, mostly villagers and tribals.
The SSP dam has so far been constructed till about 257 feet,
when a court injunction was given on further construction in
May, 1995. Politicians in Madhya Pradesh had again reiterated
the demand to restrict the height of the dam to 436 feet so
that displacement in the State is not so large. For this, the
State is willing to let go of some of the power it would have
got and claims that Gujarat will not stand to lose any of its
water or power benefits.
However, it appears that with the BJP-coalition in the saddle
at the Centre and BJP ruling Gujarat and Maharashtra, an
isolated Madhya Pradesh may not make much headway unless the
Congress at the centre takes it up.
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