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NBA asks Gujarat Govt. to halt dam construction

By Our Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD JULY 28. The Narmada Bachao Andolan has asked the Gujarat Government to immediately stop all construction activities at the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river and to reduce the water mass in the dam by opening the sluice gates.

It described as "major warning of intense seismic activities" the two earthquakes in the Sardar Sarovar dam region yesterday with an intensity of 4.3 on the Richter scale which the State authorities dismissed as "mild tremors" and reiterating the safety of the dam.

Pointing out that the dam was lying on the geographically fault zone as had been repeatedly been made clear by the seismic experts, the NBA leader, Medha Patkar, said even the Union Ministry of Environment and forest had only given a conditional clearance in 1987 and had asked the concerned authorities to complete eight different studies including a seismological survey of the region. But none of the studies, and more particularly the seismic studies had been conducted either by the state government or the Narmada Control Authority before going with the dam construction.

She said the people in the Narmada valley and the people of Gujarat should ask the Government in their own interest to conduct an in-depth, independent study by eminent experts of the seismicity in the dam region, stopping all the construction activities and opening the sluice gates to avoid additional discharge of water from the dam.

Meanwhile, as the level of the water in the dam exceeded 103 metres, the height of the dam including the three-metre hump, the authorities have started releasing water from the dam as heavy rainfall continued in its catchment areas. Ms. Patkar said a large parts of the Narmada valley in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh would be submerged in this year's monsoon affecting over 12,000 people. She accused the State Governments concerned of "conspiring" with the Gujarat Government for forcible displacement of the people in the valley due to submergence without providing alternative resettlement.

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