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DAM-L LS: NYT on Green Light From Court (fwd)



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Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 12:54:54 -0700 (PDT)
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subject: LS: NYT on Green Light From Court
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New York Times
20 October, 2000

Opponents of India Dam Project Bemoan Green Light From Court

By CELIA W. DUGGER

NEW DELHI, Oct. 19 - Anti-dam crusaders, including the novelist Arundhati Roy,
expressed sorrow today that a Supreme Court decision will allow the 
long-stalled
construction of a huge dam on the Narmada River to resume. They say the dam
project will destroy the homes and livelihoods of hundreds of 
thousands whose needs have
been neglected.

But the grief of the dam's opponents was matched by the joy of 
villagers, farmers and
politicians in the drought-afflicted state of Gujarat who believe the 
dam will bring drinking
water to thousands, irrigate millions of acres of parched farmland 
and bring prosperity to
parts of the state that now depend on undependable rains for their water.

Gujarat's chief minister, Keshubhai Patel, told a jubilant crowd in 
the city of Ahmedabad
today that construction would resume on Oct. 31.

The Narmada project has become a high-profile test of conflicting 
views about big dams in
the developing world: Do the benefits they bring outweigh the loss of 
the forests and villages
that they submerge?

In its ruling Wednesday, the Supreme Court came down heavily on the 
side of the Sardar
Sarovar dam in Gujarat, saying that such projects had made the 
country "more than
self-sufficient in food," and that "famines which used to occur have 
now become a thing of
the past."

It ruled that the height of the dam can be raised in phases from 290 
feet to as high as 452 feet,
with each major step requiring the approval of forestry and 
environmental officials.

By a 2-to-1 vote, the court rejected a petition filed six years ago 
by a private group called the
Save the Narmada Movement. It rejected the group's contention that 
the dam had damaged the
environment, though the dissenting judge argued that construction 
should be halted to allow
for further environmental studies.

The court did, however, note a grievance committee's finding that the 
state of Madhya Pradesh
- a beneficiary of the dam project - had not done enough to acquire 
land for the
resettlement of those whose property would be inundated.

The judges ordered the governments of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and 
Maharashtra to care for
those displaced by the rising waters. Any disputes over treatment of 
the displaced that cannot
be resolved by dam authorities are to be referred to the prime 
minister, whose decisions will
be final, the judges ruled.

The Sardar Sarovar dam is part of a vast project in the states of 
Gujarat, Maharashtra and
Madhya Pradesh to build a network of 3,200 dams - including 30 large and 135
medium-sized ones - on the Narmada and its tributaries.

Leaders of the Save the Narmada Movement rushed to the Narmada Valley 
today to plan a
new strategy.

"The nonviolent struggle will continue," said Medha Patkar, who leads 
the group and who has
been fighting for the rights of those in the dam's path for the past 
15 years. "We are now
moving from the battle to the war."

Ms. Roy, who joined the campaign over a year ago, said the dam 
project would lead to "a
horrible spiral of dispossession and uprootment."

Speaking in New Delhi, she said she believed people in the Narmada 
Valley would keep
fighting.

But the views of the dam opponents are far from universally shared, 
even among those who
have joined movements on behalf of farmers and the lower castes. As 
the debate has heated
up over the past year, some have argued that dams can improve the lot 
of struggling farmers
and help India continue to produce enough food to keep up with its 
growing population.

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