Protests against Sardar Sarovar Dam

Downstream of Protest.

Professional agitators cannot be allowed to stall Sardar Sarover Project, M.S.Menon.

It’s curtains for the time being, on the ongoing drama against the construction of the Sardar Sarover Project (SSP) with the Supreme Court refusing to stay the work on the plea made by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA). For the past few weeks, the project has hit rough weather, forced by political opportunists and nourished by anti-development ‘Jholawalas’ supported by page three socialites.
The crusade against SSP by the activists at the site, in the law courts and the media- all in order to ensure sustainable development in their career graph- has caused considerable damage to infrastructure development. The SSP could certainly get into the Guinness Book of World Records for the number of court cases it faces.
The recent surge in the agitation against SSP is the consequence of the Narmada Control Authority’s (NCA) permission to raise the height of the dam from the existing 110 metre to 121.9 metre after being satisfied on the much disputed resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) aspects of the project. A well-laid out mechanism for overseeing the implementation of the directives given by Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) and the apex court had provided the requisite inputs/clearances to NCA to approve the proposal to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam recently.
The activists were itching to revive their agitation because they were upset with the dwindling interest in their anti-dam movement by the public. Desperate to create a framework to justify their war on SSP, they were even ready to embrace irrelevant issues because that was the only viable strategy left for them to sustain themselves. The NCA’s approval to raise the dam’s height gave them this opportunity.
Union Minister for Water Resources, Saifuddin Soz, fell into their trap when confronted by the activists about the project’s failure to settle all the project affected persons (PAPs), and suo-motto proposed to convene the review committee meeting of the NCA (RCNCA) and to review the decision taken. The Minister’s proposal encouraged the activists to take the matter to the streets. Soon, hunger strikes, relay hunger strikes and protests by page three personalities ensued, with an obliging media providing adequate coverage.
The outcome of the RCNCA meeting was a split decision on political lines regarding the project construction which necessitated the Central Government to set up a Group of Ministers (GoM) to visit the R&R sites and report on the progress therein. The Madhya Pradesh Government protested against the GoM site visits, complaining that the ministers visited only few villages hand-picked by NBA and GoM report failed to give a complete picture of the R&R activities in Madhya Pradesh. Mean while, the apex court in response to a court case filed by NBA, authorised the Prime Minister to take needed actions.
Based on the Supreme Court’s direction, the Prime Minister constituted a three member panel, chaired by Mr. V.K.Shunglu, to report within three months on the status of rehabilitation efforts in Madhya Pradesh and recommend a system to enable the concerned PAPs get the benefits within the next three months. As usual, NBA and the professional agitators objected to the setting up of the Shunglu Committee.
In the years since construction of SSP began, these activists, labouring under an ideology –induced myopia, had been attacking the project suggesting alternatives mostly amusing, many times bizarre. They kept pushing the option of small water harvesting structures for irrigation, of projects using solar energy, biomass, etc., to generate equivalent power, to replace SSP.
Luckily for them, the Report of the World Commission on Dams (WCD Report, December,2000) came in handy to espouse their cause. However, as the WCD Report got exposed as a frame work for sustained under development for countries like India, the activists turned to the campaign of ‘stop the dam’.
Time and again, activists who have been churning out alternatives to SSP have been told that :
The limited monsoon periods and possible monsoon failures in the country necessitate large storages to ensure continued water availability every year during the eight non-monsoon months and the small storages get dried up when monsoon fails. Like- wise, the present shortage in the country’s peaking capacity of energy being more than 10000 mw and the capacity generated at present from solar and biomass energy world over being less than 5000mw, these options would have to remain confined to serve small areas under pilot projects at present.
The irony of these activists still supporting local small structures as a substitute to SSP is emblematic of the delusions of the country’s mis-informed elite. With the development agenda hijacked by individual micro-views and hostile attitudes, the country’s development plans are getting mired in endless debates with fact based reasoning becoming the casualty. The hijackers, a motley bunch, have all along thrived on trivialising projects of national importance.
Unfortunately, by accepting the easy path of ignoring rather than confronting eco- fascism, our present rulers are saddled with a problem that is turning into a night-mare in the field of water resources development (WRD) projects. Further, hydro -politics has contributed to our water woes and is the manifestation of the disease that threatens to infest all WRD projects. We have to be extremely concerned about this.
There is no second opinion that proper implementation of R&R packages would enable the displaced to lead a better life compared to the pathetically harsh conditions to which they are subjected in the interiors. The lapses in R&R, if any, have to be rectified. To achieve these objectives, the activists could sit together and collaborate with authorities to ensure proper implementation of R&R. The anti-dam brigade and their followers may treat this proposal as frivolous and amusing since, to them, publicity is more important than genuine service.

(The Pioneer, dated, 13th May, 2006)