Senior Correspondent
NewsBits.in
Bhopal: Dozens of people from the villages affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project in Narmada Valley are on a three-day ‘warning fast’ in Bhopal, demanding that the height of dam should not be increased.
The villagers, led by Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar started the mass fasting agitation at Neelam Park in Bhopal on April 27 and it would continue till April 29.
The villagers have warned that if the height of Sardar Sarovar Dam was increased without proper rehabilitation of affected people, they would take ‘Jal-Samadhi’ (drown in water).
The NBA has claimed that if the dam height is raised from current 122 metres to 139 metres and gates closed, over 50,000 families currently staying in the submergence area would lose life and property. Also large number of public properties, religious places and trees would be submerged.
Patkar has alleged that there is corruption worth over Rs 1000 crore in the dam construction and rehabilitation process. Over 45,000 families in 192 villages and one city of Madhya Pradesh are yet to receive suitable rehabilitation.
The report of Jha Commission, which was looking into corruption in resettlement and rehabilitation process, is not being made public.
Even at the current height of 122 metres of the dam, 177 out of 192 families were affected by submergence in 2013 monsoon. At least 6000 families in these areas have not received the compensatory land yet.
