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DAM-L LS: Smiles over Tehri? (fwd)
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Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2001 17:01:15 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200111030101.fA311FM24916@DaVinci.NetVista.net>
Subject: LS: Smiles over Tehri?
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http://www.janmanch.org/environment/environment.asp
Featured Article
German Chancellor in India and Tehri
Why are the German Chancellor and the Indian Power
Minister all smiles?
Himanshu Thakkar
In the newspapers today (Oct. 30), many would have noticed faces of the
German Chancellor Mr.
Gerhard Schroeder and Indian Power Minister Mr. Suresh Prabhu full of
broad and deep smiles as
they shook hands. The newspapers carrying the photos did not say that
Tehri dam was one of the
reasons for those smiles. But the news filtering in from Germany says
that Schroeder’s govt. late
last week, on eve of his departure for the sub continent, took a
decision, against mounting
opposition in his own country, to provide export credit guarantee to
German Electric equipment
supplying company Siemens for export of crucial electric equipments for
Tehri Dam under
construction in the Northern Himalayan state of Uttaranchal.
It does not seem to matter to either government that the controversial
Indian dam is under review
by a committee appointed by India’s Prime Minister. That the Supreme
Court of India continues to
be seized of a number of cases on the project. That a quarter of a
century after the project
implementation started, there is no resettlement plan for the over a
lakh people to be affected by
the project. That the project implementation continues violating basic
resettlement provisions,
norms laid down by India’s (perpetually) draft national resettlement
policy and basic principles
enunciated in the report of the World Commission on Dams. It should not
be a matter of comfort
for the German Chancellor that his government has announced that it will
follow the WCD norms,
but his decision on Tehri was violating practically all of those. But
his smile seemed to successfully
conceal discomfort, if any, on this or any of the other multiple scores
that the dam should pose.
For, the Tehri project is also under investigation by India’s premier
investigating agency Central
Bureau of Investigation, for charges of corruption in construction and
also resettlement issues. For,
after numerous committees and commissions, the question marks over
seismic threats and
environmental impacts of the project just refuses to away. For, even
after repeated threats of
submergence to the Old Tehri town along with coercion through removal of
crucial life sustaining
facilities, 26 years after project work started, the authorities have
been unable to displace the
people of the town. For, two and a half decade after the project work
began, less than 30% of
affected rural population has got any semblance of resettlement
benefits.
The Power Minister may be happy that his visit to Germany earlier in the
year seems to be bearing
“fruits”. The German Chancellor may be happy that his “small” gesture in
terms of unqualified
support to the one of the largest and most controversial Indian Dams is
creating right atmospherics
for this visit. Siemens may be happy that it has been able to get
business for a few more million
dollars in the name of saving exactly 40 East German jobs. Of course the
fate of over a lakh
people to be affected by the project and the potential threat that the
project poses to millions
downstream was farthest from the actors of this touching play. No less a
person than India’s Prime
Minister reportedly wrote in official files after a visit to the Tehri
Dam site that the dam would
benefit only the contractors. She might as well have added who would pay
the costs, but neither
she knew the answer then, nor do we know the full answer today.
Nevertheless, the contours of the
answers are only slowly becoming clearer.
Incidentally, Is it just coincident that on this same day, the media is
also full of stories of large
dams being potential terrorist targets?
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