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DAM-L Narmada height raising delayed? <fwd>
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Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 13:25:32 -0800 (PST)
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Subject: LS: Raising of Narmada dam height may be delayed
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Raising of Narmada dam height maybe delayed
The Times of India News Service
28 February 2001
GANDHINAGAR: The plan to raise the
Narmada dam height by another
five metres - up to 95 metres - is
likely to be delayed by at least eight
months.
Unprecedented resource constraint to
resettle 2,700 Sardar Sarovar
project-affected families (PAFs) from
Madhya Pradesh, particularly the
1,120 PAFs to be resettled in the home
state is proving to be the main
reason for this hindrance.
Achieving the target of raising the dam
height to 100 metres by June
2002, is crucial, for the Narmada water
to start flowing down the canal for
irrigation.
The current dam height of 90 metres has
been achieved after the Supreme
Court ruling last year. This enabled
the Narmada Control Authority
(NCA) to fix a programme of action to
reach the full reservoir level of
138 metres by June 2005.
However, Madhya Pradesh has told
Gujarat that it is facing a severe
funds crunch to resettle oustees on its
land. MP Chief Minister Digvijay
Singh is said to have conveyed this to
his Gujarat counterpart, Keshubhai
Patel.
Tackling with the post-quake situation,
Gujarat's hands are also full.
Hence it is in no position to
compensate. The Sardar Sarovar Narmada
Nigam came up with bonds issue of Rs
350 crore at 12.5 per cent interest
on Monday after the finance department
turned down its request to raise
Rs 1,500 crore.
``The Gujarat government is in no
position to stand guarantee for such a
huge amount under present
circumstances,'' said a senior bureaucrat. The
earlier bonds issue in September 1999
led to collection of Rs 1,064 crore
at 14 per cent interest.
The next Centre-sponsored NCA meeting,
with the participation of chief
ministers of the four beneficiary
states, Gujarat, MP, Maharashtra and
Rajasthan, is scheduled in April next.
The meeting is unlikely to permit
Gujarat to go ahead with raising the
dam height to 95 metres as
resettlement of the MP oustees, a
prerequisite, would remain incomplete.
'MP has expedited the resettlement of
oustees. We are hopeful of good
results. But, funds crunch, after
Chhattisgarh was carved out of the state
is quite severe. Hence, there are
problems,'' admits Narmada Nigam
chairman Bhupendrasinh Chudasma.
Gujarat officials have been told by MP
counterparts that resettlement of
the MP oustees will not be over before
June. 'This means we will be
able to go to the NCA for permission to
raise the dam height only after
June. There cannot be any construction
in monsoon. Thereafter, the NCA
will send across its resettlement and
rehabilitation group to verify the new
sites. If satisfied, we would be
allowed to go ahead. Therefore, the work
on raising the height will begin not
before November,'' said Chudasma.
The task beyond 95 metres might prove
equally elusory. To take the dam
height to 100 metres, another 2,500
PAFs would need to be resettled, half
of them in MP. 'The NCA would ensure
that all this takes place six
months before the new dam submergence
level is reached, another
prerequisite, Chudasma added.
Under the SC directive, Gujarat would
have to raise the dam height
pari-passu with resettlement of
oustees. The NCA's detailed action plan
for rehabilitation and resettlement for
PAFs shows that even oustees at 90
metres dam height have not yet been resettled.
These include 279 PAFs from MP who were
to be resettled in the home
state and another 461 to be resettled
in Gujarat besides 145 Maharashtra
PAFs who were to be resettled in the
home state and another 75 in
Gujarat, claimed Narmada Bachao Andolan
activist Shripad
Dharmadhikari. ``The progress on
resettlement front is a tall order,'' he
said.
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