Cong. warns of water-riots in Saurashtra

By Our Special Correspondent

GANDHINAGAR, MAY 23. The opposition Congress in Gujarat has described the Narmada pipeline scheme of supplying drinking water to the arid Saurashtra region, as the ``most corrupt and mismanaged scheme'' and has warned of ``water riots'' if the State Government failed to match the promises it had given to the people.

The Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly and former Chief Minister, Mr. Amarsinh Chaudhary, who was handed over a report by the party committee inquiring into the scheme, expressed the apprehension that water riots might break out all over the Saurashtra region if the monsoons were delayed this year. He maintained that the Government's claim of reaching Mahi- Narmada water through pipelines solving the acute water shortage was only meant to boost the ruling BJP's image, but in reality the people faced as much shortage as before and in most of the rural areas, the situation worsened.

According to another former Chief Minister, Mr. Dillip Parikh, who headed the Congress inquiry committee, as against the Government's promise of supplying at least 1,000 million litres of water per day, the actual supply was only 287 MLD and that was confined to the urban centres. The State Women's Congress president, Ms. Shantaben Chavda, a member of the committee, claimed that the conditions of the rural people had worsened further because in the name of the Narmada waters, the usual supply of water through tankers had been suspended. ``The rural people are nowhere, neither they are getting the pipeline water nor the tankers,'' she said.

In Amreli, the worst drought-hit area in the region, Mr. Parikh said the supply of water stopped the next day after the Chief Minister, Mr. Keshubhai Patel, inaugurated the scheme with fanfare. The people in Amreli and other parts of the State feel the Government was charging the local bodies, who in turn passed the burden onto them, making the Narmada water costlier than the mineral water sold in packed bottles.

Demanding the government to publish details of the cost of the pipeline project, Mr. Chaudhary alleged that the pipes purchased for the scheme were of ``very poor quality much below the tender price level'' and the work was executed haphazardly. He claimed that more than Rs. 360 crores spent by the Government for the scheme would be going down the drain as the pipes would not be able to sustain the first onslaught of monsoon. ``At least 35 per cent of the project cost had been misappropriated in the scheme,'' he alleged.

He pointed out that the Housing and Urban Development Corporation, who had sanctioned a loan of Rs. 360 crores for the scheme, had suspended disbursement of the amount after some irregularities came to its notice. He demanded that the Government publish a white paper, failing which the Congress would ``join the people's agitation'' against the project.

The inquiry committee, Mr. Parikh claimed, visited each of the assigned areas of the scheme for over 20 days, and had come to the conclusion that it had been misused by the Government, for publicity for the BJP than making any serious efforts to solve the water problem.

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