Bangalore: Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar on Thursday expressed her opposition to the 4,000 MW thermal power plant proposed to be established at Tadari in Uttara Kannada saying it would destroy the sensitive environment of the Western Ghats and displace people.

Speaking to presspersons here, she said governments at the Centre and in the States, in general, were not serious about rehabilitating those displaced by large projects. Inhabitants of project areas had been uprooted and subjected to untold miseries.

It was the case with the 25-odd projects in Uttara Kannada district also. The Tadari project was a Centrally sponsored one. Leaders of the protest against the project, including people's representatives, who were invited by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy for a meeting here a few days ago had said that it should not be implemented.

Ms. Patkar said it was the time for the regeneration and not degeneration of the environment. The NBA leader said that she had collected documents pertaining to the Tadari project and was studying the extent of its impact on the environment around the project area.

About the lack of seriousness in rehabilitating displaced people, she said it was shocking that even now the exact extent of land submerged in the backwaters of the Alamatti Dam in Bagalkot district had not been assessed.

Where was the question of rehabilitating the displaced people then, she asked.

Cost escalation

All-India Progressive Janata Dal leader B.R. Patil, MLA said that cost escalation had eaten into 50 per cent of the allocation for various irrigation and hydroelectric projects. The money set apart for rehabilitation was very meagre, he said.

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