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dam-l 3 Chief Ministers Call for SSP Height Reduction!
Source: Times of India, Ahmedabad, Feb. 1, 2000
Sardar Sarovar: Digvijay's 'Sankalp Yatra'
AHMEDABAD: It was a temptation Digvijay Singh found
hard to resist - a crowd of around 20,000 Gujarat
Congress workers waiting to listen to Sonia Gandhi and the
party president not around. The issue of the day: lifting the
ban on government employees from participating in RSS
activities took the back seat as the Madhya Pradesh chief
minister decided to address the thorny issue which has been
pricking at the side of both MP and Gujarat for some years now.
The result was a passionate appeal to the people and the
government of Gujarat to reduce the height of the Sardar
Sarovar dam. Digvijay's gamble at the Kankaria football
ground here on Sunday may not pay off, but it was an
opportunity he could not let go by, having got a change to
address such a large gathering in Gujarat for the first time.
Congress leaders, who had expected a virulent attack on
the BJP regime, went crimson as they saw two other chief
ministers - Vilasrao Deshmukh of Maharashtra and Ashok
Gehlot of Rajasthan - supporting Digvijay's impassioned
plea.
The `Sankalp Yatra' left several Congress workers in the
state wondering if there was anything to be gained out of
the biggest demonstration they had ever organised against
the state government. Or had the three chief ministers
handed on a platter to the state BJP, a whip with which to
lash the Congress in the months to come.
Narmada being a sensitive issue in Gujarat, any climbdown
from the present dam height of 455 feet would be suicidal
for any political outfit with a stake in Gujarat.
But while Digvijay's view on the subject was all too well
known to all, what was surprising was the unexpected
support he got from the chief ministers of the other two
states which have a stake in the Sardar Sarovar waters. As
per the Narmada Water Disputes tribunal (NWDT) award,
of the 1450 MW power to be generated from the project,
MP is to get 57 per cent, Maharashtra 27 per cent and
Gujarat 16 per cent. Besides, Barmer and Jalore districts of
Rajasthan are also to get water for irrigation and drinking.
This was a significant turnaround in fortunes from the
position one year ago when Gujarat got strong support
from Maharashtra and Rajasthan from the then chief
ministers Manohar Joshi and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.
Singh, Gehlot and Deshmukh had perhaps discussed the
issue before the public meeting at the hotel where they were
staying in Ahmedabad, without realising the fall-out of their
statements on the Congress in Gujarat.
Both Digvijay and Deshmukh are facing a strong movement
in their respective states by the Narmada Bachao Andolan
which has managed to generate enough public opinion in the
states against the dam and they were perhaps addressing
the constituency back home than the workers gathered to
hear them on the RSS ban issue.
For Gujarat, however, there is no going back on Narmada
after spending nearly Rs 8,000 crores on the project which
was first mooted in 1963. The Khosla committee had
initially proposed a dam height of 500 feet to take the water
right to the end of Kutch. However, after bitter negotiations
between 1969 and 1979, the NWDT deliberated the issue
and finally resolved it at a height of 455 feet.
But soon after Digvijay Singh took over as chief minister in
1993, he mobilised support among all political parties in
MP to get the height reduced to 436 feet which would give
Gujarat all the benefits while reducing the number of
affected families in MP from 33,000 to 23,000. He has
stated that Madhya Pradesh is even willing to forego part of
its lion's share in power if Gujarat agrees to the reduction in
height.
What is disturbing for Gujarat is that in future battles in the
Supreme Court, all the other three participating states may
speak in one voice. Singh, Deshmukh and Gehlot are not
just Congressmen but they belong to the same generation of
politicians whose thinking on the issue may have lot in
common than their Gujarat counterpart Keshubhai Patel.