The Hindu : `Modi lobbying to raise dam height'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 26, 2002

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`Modi lobbying to raise dam height'

By Gargi Parsai

New Delhi Aug. 25. The Narmada Bachao Andolan has alleged that even as the submergence from the raised height of the Sardar Sarovar dam in Gujarat had caused enormous devastation and destruction to homes and crops of the tribals in the Narmada Valley, the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, was lobbying for raising its height further "as part of his electoral machinations.''

"As a sequel to the ghastly State-sponsored communal carnage in Gujarat, the Gujarat Chief Minister is bent upon suppressing the vulnerable sections of people, this time the tribals. His attempts for increasing the height of the dam up to 100 metres or 110 meters — without rehabilitation and resettlement of those affected even at the present height of 95 metres — is fraught with increasing danger for the lives and livelihoods of thousands of more families in the Narmada Valley,'' the NBA leader, Medha Patkar, said in a statement today from the submerged village of Domkhedi in Madhya Pradesh.

"When the people affected at 95 metres are still in their original villages without rehabilitation, we expect that the Maharashtra and the Madhya Pradesh Governments should not fall prey to the designs of this another anti-people ruse of Modi,'' Ms. Patkar said. She, along with the displaced villagers, stood in waist-deep waters, protesting the indifferent attitude of the administration to people whose houses had gone under water. "The people in the Valley dared the submergence in Jalsindhi, Domkhedi and other villages and are prepared to face the unjust submergence once again.''

In Gujarat, rising waters had affected large tracts of standing crop in Mokhadi, Antras, Gadher, Turkheda and Hapheshwar and the ancient temple in Hapheshwar was half submerged. Land with standing lush green crop in every tribal village of Alirajpur tehsil in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra had been affected. This meant a massive loss of standing crops and a threat of lurking famine. Titled lands had also affected 20 villages in Maharashtra, including Manibeli, Sikka and Domkhedi.

So far, waters had not entered the plains of fertile Nimad region in Madhya Pradesh but if monsoon brought heavy rains in catchment areas — as the one that washed way the Balaghat dam in the State — Nimad villages would be affected.

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`Modi lobbying to raise dam height'