55 protesters demanding meeting with PM arrested
from front of his house: No explanation for the
PM’s reluctance to suspend dam construction
except bowing to Modi’s pressure

The indefinite fast continues into the 19^th day
even as the health condition of all three fasters
– Bhagvatibai, Jamsing and Medha Patkar -
deteriorates. Meanwhile the relay fast by Prof.
Deven Singh, Rajendra Ravi, Bela Bhatia, Dr.
Vandana Prasad, Amarnathbhai, Dr. Sachidanand and
Dayabai entered third day. Tomorrow, Andolan has
given a call for going on hunger strike en masse.

55 protesters seeking a meeting with the PM to
ask him to perform his duty as directed by
Supreme Court in its October 18, 2000 judgement
were arrested by Delhi Police today afternoon
from in front of his house. Those arrested
included Swami Agnivesh, Vinod Raina, Kamal Mitra
Chenoy, Achin Vanaik, Shabnam Hashmi, Vinod Dua,
students from JNU and DU as well as other
supporters. These supporters, in a peaceful
manner, approached the PM’s house and submitted a
memorandum and made requested for a meeting with
the PM. Immediately the Rapid Action Force and
police were brought in and the supporters ushered
into buses. The police is holding them in custody
at Chanakyapuri Police Station.

Where as Supreme Court judgement puts the
responsibility on PM, to deliver his decision, in
event of disputes between party states at RCNCA;
its really sad to note that his media advisor is
misguiding the press stating that the dam
construction is not going to be stopped, even as
the PM keeps entertaining the pro-Dam delegations
of politicians from Gujarat.

Since the people to be affected are not
rehabilitated as per the Supreme Court orders and
the Narmada Tribunal Award, there is no legal
ground for raising the dam height. The Supreme
Court directions are clear in stating that the
affected families be rehabilitated with alternate
cultivable and irrigable land six months in
advance of the submergence. Moreover, acting as
devil’s advocate, let us for the time being put
aside all the sound arguments for SSP not being
the most appropriate option for water needs of
Gujarat or power needs of the western India.
Thus, even if we look at the benefits angle,
there is no justification for the proposition as
Gujarat has not been able to use even 10% of the
water available at current height.

Irrigation:

For example, as per the claim of the official
website of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam (
www.sardarsarvordam.org), Gujarat has been able
to irrigate 57 002 ha from the SSP, which is just
10% of the irrigation possible in phase I of the
project. The main reason why more irrigation has
not been achieved is that Gujarat has not
developed the distribution system and the command
area for irrigating more areas. Among all the
components of the SSP, development of the canal
network right upto the field is the most
expensive one. Because of the delay in the
development of the command area (this has no
direct relation with the height of the dam), SSP
has become the costliest irrigation project in
India today.

As per the Mid term appraisal of the
10^th Five year plan, the cost of just the
irrigation component of SSP has gone up to Rs
30823 crores (2005 prices), and cost of
irrigating one ha has gone up to a whopping Rs 1
72 000. Had SSP been planned properly, it could
have started irrigating at least 5 lakh ha in
2004 (even earlier since the Irrigation By Pass
Tunnel was inaugurated on Aug 20, 2002 ), but
that objective is unlikely to be achieved for at
least 5 more years if we go by the past
performance. The project authorities should be
held accountable for this delay. Their hankering
for increase in height of the dam, rather than
use of the available water has done a great
disservice to the people and public resources of
Gujarat . This also applies to Rajasthan as
Rajasthan can get its share of water without
increase in height of the dam as once water
enters the gravity flow canal (as it has been
happening since 2002 through IBPT and since 2004
through Canal Head Power House), water can flow
to Rajasthan.

Drinking water:

The second claimed benefit is the drinking water
from SSP. The total allocation of water for
Municipal and Industrial supply from SSP is 1.06
MAF. This amount of water has been available at
least since 1999 when the dam height reached 85
mts. It was only in 2001 that pumping of water
from SSP into canals was started. From that date,
if the drinking water distribution system as
planned were in place, Gujarat could have
provided drinking water to all the 135 towns and
8215 villages as per the plans. There is no need
for increase in height of the dam for achieving
that objective. However, since the distribution
system is not in place even today, the objective
has not been achieved. If there is anyone to be
blamed for this delay, it is only the Gujarat
government and not NBA or the affected people.

The ambitious Sardar Sarovar Narmada Canal Based
Bulk Water Transmission Project commenced in the
year 1999-2000 and was scheduled to be completed
by 2002, but was lagging behind due to "defective
planning and lack of coordination among different
agencies" and not because of litigations or non
raising of the dam height, as borne out from the
findings of the CAG reports for the year ending
March 31, 2003 and 2005 . As per the CAG report
on Gujarat (civil) for the year ending March 31,
2003 , "The gross average daily intake during the
two years of its operation (December 2000 to
November 2002) was 119.80 MLD against the
envisaged capacity of 287 MLD ( i.e. 42 percent
of capacity utilisation) only. Of the envisaged
coverage of 1860 villages/ towns, benefit reached
only to 543 villages. So, even after two years of
execution, at the cost of Rs 464.17 crores,
benefits could be derived to the extent of 44
percent of the envisaged population only".

The CAG report on Gujarat (civil) for the year ending
March 31, 2005 covers the implementation and
performance of the second route of Sardar Sarovar
Canal Based Bulk Water Transmission Project. At
Para 3.2.8.3 CAG mentions that due to delay in
execution of distribution works, "only 29 percent
of installed capacity of water was used and only
415 of 1342 targeted villages/ towns ( i.e. 31
percent) were covered". Elaborating on this, CAG
states, "as a result of delay in execution of
distribution works, the gross daily intake during
May 2003 to June 2005 was 145.17 MLD (29 percent)
against the envisaged capacity utilisation of 500
MLD".

Power generation

The third claimed justification for increase in
height of the dam is the power generation. If
optimum power generation were the objective of
the project authorities, all the units of the
power component should have been in place by June
2004 when the dam height of 110 m was achieved.
However, that is not the situation even today. It
should be noted that installation of the power
units is not dependent on the height of the dam.
If all the units are not in place, it is only
because of the mismanagement of the project
authorities. It is the project authorities that
should take the blame for the lower than possible
power generation from SSP.

It is true that if the height of the dam is
increased, the installed units would be able to
generate slightly (maximum 7.7%, reducing to nil
once irrigation develops in Gujarat and Madhya
Pradesh) higher power as they would have greater
head of water for power generation. However, this
increase would be marginal. It cannot be the case
of any civilized society that homes and
livelihoods of thousands of people can be
destroyed for such marginal gains. If the
authorities had achieved the rehabilitation as
required under the law, they could have a
justified case for increase in height of the dam.
Today they have none.

On power front it should also be noted that MP
and Maharashtra power sectors (they share 57% and
27% of the power generated at SSP respectively)
have power T&D losses in excess of 30%, which can
be brought down to less than half that level.
More needs to be done on this front, that would
make available a lot more power than going for
the inhuman, illegal and unjust option of
submerging homes and lives of thousands of people.

It is thus strange as to why the Gujarat Govt and
the Union Water Resources Ministry are pushing
for increase in height of the dam, which is
neither just, not justified. All concerned should
keep this in mind as they debate the issue of
stopping the construction of SSP Dam till R&R is
completed as required.

Narmada Bachao Andolan
62 Gandhi Marg, Badwani, Madhya Pradesh 451551.
C/o B-13 Shivam Flats, Ellora Park, Vadodara, Gujarat 390023.
Maitri Niwas, Tembewadi, Dhadgaon, dist. Nandurbar, Maharashtra.