New Delhi: The project-affected families have pleaded before the Supreme Court to order suspension of the construction work on raising the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam from 110.64 metres to 121.92 metres as recommended by the Narmada Control Authority (NCA).

In a rejoinder, the applicants whose cause is being espoused by the Narmada Bachao Andolan, strongly refuted the contention of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra on the relief and rehabilitation (R and R) provided to them. They said that the decision of the NCA at its meeting on March 8 recommending the raising of the height of the dam was in violation of the orders passed by the apex court from time to time.

The applicants took exception to the repeated references made to the NBA in the affidavits filed by the three States and said such a reference was objectionable. Any attempt made in this manner could not dilute the responsibility of the States to comply with R and R within the time frame in letter and spirit as per the Narmada award and the judgments of the apex court. The Madhya Pradesh government should focus on the rehabilitation of oustees rather than to distract from the issue at hand.

They said that resettlement and rehabilitation were not a mere game of numbers, it had a live content, dealing with people, families and children uprooted and had to be actually rehabilitated at least with minimum facilities. The action of the State in offering uncultivable land or cash compensation had to be viewed as merely a cover to facilitate increase in the dam height. The claim of MP that it had fulfilled the R and R was not correct as such rehabilitation had been done in clear violation of the award and the apex court judgments.

On the stand of Gujarat that raising the dam height would result in development, they said that oustees whose lands and houses were taken had suffered in this process and any development at their cost could not be said to be development in the true sense. They pointed out that Gujarat had planned to provide drinking water to all the villages by 2002; however, it had not been able to achieve this till date because Gujarat had been unable to put the required delivery system in place and not because of lack of availability of water from the Sardar Sarovar project.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail