— Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

RELENTLESS FIGHT: Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar staging a dharna outside the Water Resources Ministry Office in New Delhi on Saturday.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is said to have assured a delegation led by Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) on Saturday that he would talk to the Ministers concerned in the next two days on resettlement and rehabilitation of those displaced by the Sardar Sarovar dam across the Narmada in Gujarat. There was, however, no official word on the meeting.

About 350 farmers and NBA activists have been protesting outside the Water Resources Ministry here since March 17, challenging the decision of the Narmada Control Authority to raise the dam height.

Ms. Patkar said their next step would depend on Dr. Singh's action. She sought his intervention to stop the construction of the dam. The Narmada Control Authority should reverse its decision of permitting the Gujarat Government to raise the dam height by over 11 metres without prior and proper resettlement and rehabilitation of the displaced families in the riparian States of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

In a memorandum, the delegation sought a Planning Commission review of the project and the claims of benefits accruing at the current level of 110.64 metres. The team appealed to Dr. Singh to direct Minister for Water Resources Saifuddin Soz to immediately convene a meeting of the Review Committee of the Narmada Control Authority. The decision to raise the height would affect 35,000 families.

The delegation told Dr. Singh that in Madhya Pradesh no cultivable land was being offered and cash compensation was being disbursed amid "rampant corruption".In Maharashtra, the claim of "no balance families" was "false". An oustee from Gujarat narrated the plight of adult sons and widows who had been left out.

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