The Hindu : High-level meet on Narmada dam today

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Thursday, Feb 12, 2004

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High-level meet on Narmada dam today

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI, FEB. 10. The high-level meeting to be held tomorrow to arrive at a decision on raising the height of the Narmada dam from the present level of 100 metres to 110.64 metres is likely to witness a political battle.

The meeting of the Review Committee of the Narmada Control Authority, to be chaired by the Union Minister of Water Resources, Arjun Charan Sethi, will be attended by the Narmada valley Chief Ministers, Uma Bharti (Madhya Pradesh), Vasundhara Raje (Rajasthan) and Narendra Modi (Gujarat). Maharashtra is likely to be represented by a Minister.

In the Review Committee meeting on January 29, the Maharashtra Minister for Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar, had alleged that he was being "pressured" by his Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat counterparts to agree to raising the dam height and simultaneous resettlement of the project-affected families.

The Minister had insisted that unless all families were rehabilitated, the State could not agree to raising the height.

He sought four months to resettle the displaced people at a height of 110.64 metres.

Subsequently, the Committee had asked the chairman of the sub-group on rehabilitation and resettlement and the Union Secretary for Social Justice and Empowerment, B.S. Baswan, to visit Maharashtra and get a spot report.

In the meantime, the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) said in a press conference in Mumbai that Mr. Baswan had only met officials in Mumbai and the Grievance Redressal Agency but did not visit the valley to assess the situation.

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