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dam-l 3 Chief Ministers Call for SSP Height Reduction!



Source: Times of India, Ahmedabad, Feb. 1, 2000

               Sardar Sarovar: Digvijay's 'Sankalp Yatra'

               AHMEDABAD: It was a temptation Digvijay Singh found
               hard to resist - a crowd of around 20,000 Gujarat
               Congress workers waiting to listen to Sonia Gandhi and the
               party president not around. The issue of the day: lifting the
               ban on government employees from participating in RSS
               activities took the back seat as the Madhya Pradesh chief
               minister decided to address the thorny issue which has been
               pricking at the side of both MP and Gujarat for some years now.

               The result was a passionate appeal to the people and the
               government of Gujarat to reduce the height of the Sardar
               Sarovar dam. Digvijay's gamble at the Kankaria football
               ground here on Sunday may not pay off, but it was an
               opportunity he could not let go by, having got a change to
               address such a large gathering in Gujarat for the first time.

               Congress leaders, who had expected a virulent attack on
               the BJP regime, went crimson as they saw two other chief
               ministers - Vilasrao Deshmukh of Maharashtra and Ashok
               Gehlot of Rajasthan - supporting Digvijay's impassioned
               plea.

               The `Sankalp Yatra' left several Congress workers in the
               state wondering if there was anything to be gained out of
               the biggest demonstration they had ever organised against
               the state government. Or had the three chief ministers
               handed on a platter to the state BJP, a whip with which to
               lash the Congress in the months to come.

               Narmada being a sensitive issue in Gujarat, any climbdown
               from the present dam height of 455 feet would be suicidal
               for any political outfit with a stake in Gujarat.

               But while Digvijay's view on the subject was all too well
               known to all, what was surprising was the unexpected
               support he got from the chief ministers of the other two
               states which have a stake in the Sardar Sarovar waters. As
               per the Narmada Water Disputes tribunal (NWDT) award,
               of the 1450 MW power to be generated from the project,
               MP is to get 57 per cent, Maharashtra 27 per cent and
               Gujarat 16 per cent. Besides, Barmer and Jalore districts of
               Rajasthan are also to get water for irrigation and drinking.

               This was a significant turnaround in fortunes from the
               position one year ago when Gujarat got strong support
               from Maharashtra and Rajasthan from the then chief
               ministers Manohar Joshi and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.
               Singh, Gehlot and Deshmukh had perhaps discussed the
               issue before the public meeting at the hotel where they were
               staying in Ahmedabad, without realising the fall-out of their
               statements on the Congress in Gujarat.

               Both Digvijay and Deshmukh are facing a strong movement
               in their respective states by the Narmada Bachao Andolan
               which has managed to generate enough public opinion in the
               states against the dam and they were perhaps addressing
               the constituency back home than the workers gathered to
               hear them on the RSS ban issue.

               For Gujarat, however, there is no going back on Narmada
               after spending nearly Rs 8,000 crores on the project which
               was first mooted in 1963. The Khosla committee had
               initially proposed a dam height of 500 feet to take the water
               right to the end of Kutch. However, after bitter negotiations
               between 1969 and 1979, the NWDT deliberated the issue
               and finally resolved it at a height of 455 feet.

               But soon after Digvijay Singh took over as chief minister in
               1993, he mobilised support among all political parties in
               MP to get the height reduced to 436 feet which would give
               Gujarat all the benefits while reducing the number of
               affected families in MP from 33,000 to 23,000. He has
               stated that Madhya Pradesh is even willing to forego part of
               its lion's share in power if Gujarat agrees to the reduction in
               height.

               What is disturbing for Gujarat is that in future battles in the
               Supreme Court, all the other three participating states may
               speak in one voice. Singh, Deshmukh and Gehlot are not
               just Congressmen but they belong to the same generation of
               politicians whose thinking on the issue may have lot in
               common than their Gujarat counterpart Keshubhai Patel.