Govt. flayed for ignoring dams panel report

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI, MAY 26. The Centre today came in for sharp criticism for its decision to stay away from a discussion here on the Report of the World Commission of Dams (WCD). Such a meeting had been postponed twice in the past, not to forget the denial of permission by the Government for the Commission to hold its first public hearing on dams in India.

First, the idea of such a Commission did not sit well with the Government. Then, it found everything wrong with the Commission and its report and has now decided not to accept it. Not only that, the Ministry of Water Resources lobbied hard with State Governments and institutions to prevent officials from participating in today's meeting.

Several renowned people including the Vice-President of the WCD, Mr. L.C. Jain, former Minister of State for Water Resources and Planning Commission Member, Mr. Som Pal, former judge of the High Court, Mr. Rajinder Sachar, former bureaucrat, Mr. B.D. Sharma, and former Water Resources Secretary, Mr. Ramaswamy Iyer, decried the ``undemocratic'' stand of the Government. The Commission has since been dismantled and replaced by a Dam Development Unit. Countries such as Sri Lanka and Brazil have decided to set up National Commissions on Dams and Pakistan has decided to operationalise its guidelines, said Mr. Jan Weltrop, a Commissioner.

But it was not as if the Government was unrepresented. There was a battery of retired engineers from the Ministry, from Gujarat and retired members of the Central Water Commission who eulogised the virtues of big dams and rubbished the report saying it was ``biased, impractical and utopian''.

Mr. L.C. Jain, however, ran through the numerous unfinished projects and decisions of the Water Resources Ministry some of which have been pending for more than three decades to show how the Government had delayed water projects and policies and were now pointing a finger at activists for a four-year delay in the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Project in Gujarat.

Mr. Som Pal said issues such as food, agriculture, health, environment and human rights were outside the realm of Water Resources Ministry which handled mega dams. Mr. Ramaswamy Iyer asked officials to call off hostilities and get rid of the belief that there was a vast western conspiracy to prevent India's development.

``Nobody wants to dissent. But consent will not come unless there is dialogue,'' said Ms. Medha Patkar, one of the Commissioners from India on the WCD. Ms. Patkar, who felt the report was not ``radical enough'', has given a dissenting note. She said the report may be final, but the statement on dams was not.

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