The Hindu : Violating the spirit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 20, 2003

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Violating the spirit

THE GOOD NEWS about the waters of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) entering the Kutch region of Gujarat is no reason to either overlook or condone the Narmada Control Authority's (NCA) clearance for raising the height of the dam from 95 to 100 metres — a decision that does not address basic questions of adherence to Constitutional and democratic norms. The latest step — despite the admission by riparian States that the state of progress regarding rehabilitation and resettlement of the project-affected people is unsatisfactory — is in clear violation of the spirit of the Supreme Court ruling of 2000 and the award of the Narmada Water Disputes Authority (NWDA). The Supreme Court was categorical in choosing not to sit in judgment over the merits or viability of large dams as a feature of the conventional developmental paradigm. But then, it reinforced in unambiguous terms the NWDA award stipulating that vulnerable families should be rehabilitated at least six months before every additional increase in the height of the SSP dam. Ironically though, the NCA has given the go-ahead, notwithstanding the fact that Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh conceded at last week's meeting that people displaced in the past were yet to be adequately rehabilitated in terms of provision of land and other infrastructure.

The height of the dam has been subject to periodic increases ever since the apex court vacated a four-year stay on construction activity in 1998. The last such increase — also by 5 metres — was effected last May. But on that occasion, the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Sub-Group exercised a restraining influence in the face of countervailing pressure from the Environment Sub-Group for a 10-metre increase in the dam height. In the current instance though, the R-R Sub-Group has satisfied itself with an undertaking from the Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh Governments to relocate potential victims of fresh submergence during the ensuing monsoon. It thus appears to have come under pressure to clear the proposal for raising the height. The performance of the two States on the resettlement of the affected people has come under intense scrutiny from the Grievance Redressal Committee in Maharashtra as well as NGOs. While Maharashtra has not fulfilled, to any reasonable degree of satisfaction, the land for land provision in the rehabilitation package, Madhya Pradesh — in contravention of the NWDA and the Supreme Court ruling — is said to be disbursing cash compensation, claiming that adequate land was not available with the Government.

The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), which in recent years has rightly turned its focus on the humanitarian aspects of the SSP, has drawn attention to the substantial enlargement of areas and habitations already under submergence during monsoons following every phase of raising the dam height. Despite persistent appeals to stagger the expansion of the project too keep pace with the rehabilitation process, Governments have displayed little sensitivity towards the dire humanitarian and human rights dimensions of the mega project. On the contrary, they have shown no compunction about using the long arm of the law to forcefully evict dissenting communities from the site of submergence. Thus, the current phase of the NBA's campaign is faced with the critical task of highlighting issues of citizens' basic entitlements and inalienable rights to shelter and livelihood in the social mainstream. This is especially important considering that the NCA, a body packed with bureaucrats with known sympathies for the dam, is under sustained pressure from major political parties to push through with the project. With the Prime Minister himself being vested with the authority of a final arbiter on issues related to the pace of progress and the rehabilitation and resettlement of the affected people, it is of the utmost importance that further construction activity is not allowed to assume precedence over the social ramifications of the controversial project. Failure on this score could inflict irreversible damage to the social and democratic fabric.

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