- Mr. Modi’s dedication, not of benefits or
rehabilitation nor the Project but merely power
turbines, is a political farce.

– Centre must review the project with
socio-economic-environmental impacts and massive
corruption proved.

It is just unfortunate and totally unjust
that CM of Gujarat, Mr. Narendra Modi restoring
to one more act of fooling people of Gujarat and
nation as a whole. Mr. Modi dedicated to nation,
the power turbines of Sardar Sarovar Project and
not the project itself or even the benefits,
which are far from completion and achievements.
The people all over the country, who have watched
the struggle and challenge the falsehood that
helped push the giant Dam of Sardar Sarovar to
122 mts, should very well know that the turbines
which were brought from Sumitoto and Hitashi, two
of the Japanese companies as per the condition
put forward by Bilateral Development Assistance
agencies of Japan, have not been functional or up
to the mark as yet. Both the power houses - River
Bed Power House (RBPH) and Canal Head Power House
(CHPH) have generated much less power and much
costlier power than was expected at 110 meters of
dam height itself.

Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, who are to get
only power and not a drop of water, are
sacrificing their generation old adivasi and
farmer communities, prime agricultural lands and
thousands of crores of rupees till date, while a
huge investment is yet to occur, with balance of
financial liabilities and affected families in
their account. It is to be noted that Sardar
Sarovar has not yet come on the list of projects
providing power to Maharashtra as per the
official documents of MSEB.

Madhya Pradesh, where thickly populated villages
and townships are thrown into the affected area
of the dam at the present height of 122 metres,
also has not received the real power beyond
negligible minimum. This has happened because, in
spite of height raised to110 mts during monsoon
of 2006, Gujarat govt. could not use water in the
reservoir for producing power in Canal Head Power
House. The reason was the fear of villages on
canal banks getting drowned with breaches in the
canal, carrying not just water but also
corruption.

With the farcical celebration of the so-called
dedication of turbines, the government has also
restored to fake publicity through advertising,
spending lakhs of rupees from the public
exchequer. Just as the promises of Rehabilitation
over years have not come true in case of
thousands of Sardar Sarovar Project affected
families, the promise of 1450 MW also cannot be.
This being the generation capacity (installed
capacity) at Full Reservoir Level, which is to be
at 138.68 mts, cannot be achieved at either 122
mts or even at the full height. The claims of
government of Gujarat regarding power generation
are unwarranted and in discrepancy with the
calculations of Central Electricity Authority,
which is actually only half of what Gujarat
government claims. The actual generated power has
always been less than generating capacity (in any
hydro power project) and in the case of Sardar
Sarovar, it has to start with 439 MW and within
years, will come down to 50 MW, once irrigation
targets in Gujarat are achieved. The conflict
between irrigation and power in any Multi Purpose
Project is well known to the country, which will
be much more in case of Sardar Sarovar, with
inter state conflicts that are bound to infest
Sardar Sarovar sooner or later.

Mr. Modi could not dare gift Irrigation, even the
whole project, obviously because the project is
far from being completed. More than 40,000
families still await full and complete
Rehabilitation as per law and court judgment and
hence continue to live in their lands, under
threat of submergence.

The permission to raise height, even if by
putting gates, is not and cannot be given by
Central agencies, including Rehabilitation
Sub-group of NCA. It is revealed from the reports
of few of the research organizations of Gujarat
that mere 10% of drinking and irrigation targets
claimed at 110 mts could be achieved by state.
People of Kutch and Surat are deprived, not of
non-performance of water supply network but also
because of distributive in-justice. The later
reason has come to be worse, with transfer of
water and land in command area of SSP to
corporates first, before the drought affected
farmers and others, who were made to await the
mirage of Narmada all through these decades. It
is in this context that Gujarat Congress, the
government and the authorities at the Center must
show the rational and political acumen not to
support the political agenda of Mr. Modi, rather
should expose false claims of benefits and
Rehabilitation both. When central authorities
have power and responsibility to ensure justice
to oustees before submergence and even withdraw
the sanctions to a project as well its financial
support through Planning Commission, beyond the
boycott of dedication function of Mr Modi. It
could do good if along with:

a) Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR)
undertake with Planning Commission and update the
Cost-Benefits of 40,000 crore project i.e. Sardar
Sarovar .

b) MoWR does not sanction any further funds
under its Accelerated Irrigation Benefit
Programme, much criticized by CAG.

c) Not allow any further work at the Dam
site including erection of gates if no legal and
justice based Rehabilitation is in sight for
thousands of families i.e. a few lakhs of people
in the river valley, the oldest of civilization.

d) Ministry of Environment send special
team to review compliances put forth as on the
Environment compensation measures as
pre-conditions in the project clearance, which
too are only on paper.

e) Direct Ministry of Social Justice to
ensure immediate allotment of land and
establishment of R&R sites for already affected
and to be immediately affected adivasis and
farmer communities.

f) Undertake CBI enquiry into huge
corruption in the name of Rehabilitation and
compensation, which is proved through documents
by NBA.

Noorji Padvi, Yogini Khanolkar, Chetan Salve, Ashish Mandloi, Medha Patkar