[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

dam-l LS: Press Clips on German Maheshwar Report



DECCAN HERALD
Sunday, July 9, 2000

Claims, counter-claims over MP hydel project

BHOPAL, July 8 (DHNS)

S Kumars, the promoters of the contentious ''Maheshwar hydel power 
project" in Madhya Pradesh and its staunch opponent, the Narmada 
Bachao Andolan (NBA) made conflicting claims about the project in 
separate press conferences here on Friday.

While S Kumars accused the media of being ''biased" and charged the 
NBA with unleashing an ''unfounded propaganda war" against the 
project, the NBA urged the company to wash its hands off the project.

The NBA has been demanding the scrapping of the Rs 2,100 crore, 400 
MW Maheshwar project on river Narmada in the Onkareshwar district of 
the State, saying that it was environmentally destructive and would 
produce very costly power. Maheshwar is the first hydel power project 
in the country to be handed over to the private sector.

Thanks to the NBA's agitation, the project has suffered massive time 
and cost over-runs. Two German companies withdrew from the project 
last year saying that it would ''violate the human rights of the 
oustees".

S Kumars said that the project was ''environment friendly". ''Not an 
inch of forests is being submerged and only 61 villages are being 
affected. And hydel power plants generate absolutely no pollutants," 
said Mr M P Jain, director of the joint venture company floated by S 
Kumars for the project.

He said the average cost of power production will be Rs 2.83 per unit 
over a period of 35 years. He described as ''biased" the report of a 
German environment group which visited the project site and submitted 
an adverse report. According to him, 90 per cent of the 1,500-odd 
project affected families (PAPs) had been rehabilitated.

The NBA disputed all these facts. Mr Alok Agarwal of the organisation 
said that the affected families numbered 7000, that a majority of 
them had not been rehabilitated and that the project would produce Rs 
15 per unit of power. He claimed that the land allotted to the oustees
was ''rocky and barren"



	Economic Times

                     Thursday Jul 13 2000

                     German report criticises MP govt, Maheshwar project
                     Gurbir Singh
                     MUMBAI
                     A REPORT of the German development ministry has 
indicted the
                     Maheshwar Hydroelectric Project and the Madhya 
Pradesh government for
                     the poor relief and rehabilitation measures. The 
Shree Maheshwar
                     Hydro-Electric Power Corporation Ltd, promoted by 
the S Kumars group, is
                     developing the Rs 2,000-crore private sector 
power project near
                     Mandaleshwar (Madhya Pradesh) in the Narmada river basin.

                     The report's likely impact on an export credit 
guarantee provided by the
                     German government's export credit agency Hermes 
is yet to be seen. The
                     export credit is tied to the sale of power 
generation equipment from
                     engineering giant Siemens.

                     The German ministry of economic cooperation and development
                     commissioned the report in May, 2000. The report, 
recently submitted to the
                     German government, has pointed out that 
"significant uncertainty exists
                     about the amount of land to be seriously affected 
(submerged or
                     waterlogged) by the project and there are no 
apparent plans by the
                     authorities to remedy this problem."

                     Aloka Bannerjee, senior vice-president with Shree 
Maheshwar Power, said
                     any cancellation of loan would not affect the 
project since the company had
                     arranged financial guarantees from an alternative 
consortium of banks.
                     She, however, clarified that she could not 
comment on the report since the
                     company had not yet obtained a copy.

                     ''We were expecting this. The German ministry has 
been working
                     hand-in-glove with the Narmada Bachao Andolan," 
responded Mukul
                     Kasliwal on behalf of the S Kumars group. "The 
German government has
                     been dilly-dallying since 1998, and they 
commissioned this report because
                     an earlier German Embassy survey had okayed the 
rehabilitation
                     measures," he added.

                     Kasliwal also alleged that one of the German team 
members, Shekhar
                     Singh, was a known opponent of power projects.

                     The German development ministry has been involved 
with the project since
                     the single largest foreign component of the 
hydroelectric project is a Rs 500
                     crore loan from the German bank, the Hypo 
Vereinsbank. Since the loan is
                     tied to the purchase of power equipment from 
Siemens, the company had
                     applied for an export guarantee for the project.

                     Initially, the Christian Democratic government 
had cleared the project in
                     1997, but with the Social Democrat-Green 
coalition coming to power in
                     1998, the project came under review.

                     The German ministry of development subsequently 
commissioned a team of
                     environmental experts to study the Maheshwar project.

----------------

                    NBA waves new German report against Maheshwar dam

                    The Times of India News Service

                    NEW DELHI: The Narmada Bachao Andolan has once 
again called upon
                    the Union and Madhya Pradesh governments to scrap 
the controversial
                    Maheshwar project on the Narmada river. To lend 
strength to its demand,
                    the NBA has cited a recent report prepared by 
experts at the behest of the
                    German development ministry.

                    The report, among other things, says that the 
relief and rehabilitation (R and
                    R) policy presently being implemented is 
inadequate and ``the resources and
                    capability to carry out R and R in accordance with 
the stated policy and
                    conditions of clearance do not exist''.

                    The development ministry figures in the picture 
since the German company
                    Siemens had sought an export guarantee from the 
German government to
                    provide turbines for the project. In fact, in the 
light of the report, NBA has
                    urged the German government not to provide any 
guarantee. ``The German
                    government must withdraw following this report,'' 
said Chittaroopa Palit of
                    the NBA on Tuesday.

                    The report also notes that ``significant 
uncertainty exists about the amount
                    of land to be seriously affected (submerged or 
water-logged) by the
                    project....'' and that, ``for identification of 
the scale of the project, a complete
                    socio-economic survey would normally be taken, but 
does not appear to
                    exist in Maheshwar.''

                    The Maheshwar hydro-electric project being 
executed by S Kumars is the
                    first privatised hydel project in the country. NBA 
estimates it will affect
                    nearly 40,000 people and submerge thousands of 
acres of land.

                    The three-member team comprising Shekhar Singh of 
the Indian Institute of
                    Public Administration (he is also a member of the 
environmental sub-group
                    of the Narmada Control Authority), Richard E 
Bissell, former chairman of
                    the World Bank's inspection panel, and Hermann 
Warth, environmental
                    consultant to the German and Austrian governments, 
toured the area
                    recently.

                    And here is a bit of what their report has to say:

                    * On the number of project affected persons: ``All 
parties agree that such
                    numbers will change, but they disagree over the 
scale...The Madhya Pradesh
                    Electricity Board (MPEB) agrees that a new survey 
is needed, but it has
                    been done in only one village out of 61....''

                    * On the MPEB: ``The MPEB has been contracted by S 
Kumars to carry
                    out R and R. However, according to their 
officials, the MPEB has little or no
                    experience in implementing R and R. In fact, MPEB 
- though implementing
                    R and R - ``did not have family-wise list of 
land-holdings nor a list of who
                    had sold their land, who had been paid an advance...''

                    * On land availability for the displaced: 
``According to the principal
                    secretary, energy, MP, there is no agricultural 
land available in the area for
                    whatever land there is has been cultivated or 
encroached upon.''

                    The report is also critical of the information 
given regarding the resettlement
                    process, noting the residents' anguish at having 
to ``pay the price for the
                    project by being displaced from their traditional 
homes (though) they were
                    never once consulted about the project.