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dam-l Oppisition to Large Irrigation Projects in Kerala (fwd)



apologies for cross-postings...

Forwarded message:
> From cwaterp@del3.vsnl.net.in  Thu Feb 17 08:33:08 2000
> Message-ID: <38ABF638.6A625FD5@del3.vsnl.net.in>
> Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 18:53:04 +0530
> From: Himanshu Thakkar <cwaterp@del3.vsnl.net.in>
> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.08 [en] (Win98; I)
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Subject: Oppisition to Large Irrigation Projects in Kerala
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> 
> Source: Business Line, Feb. 17, 2000
> 
> Opposition to irrigation projects in Kerala
> 
>                  Our Bureau
> 
>                  KOZHIKODE, Feb. 16
> 
>                  DESCRIBING that the move to set up five large
> irrigation
>                  projects in Wayanad was prompted by an
>                  ``irrigation-mafia,'' the Wayanad Anti-Dam Agitation
>                  Committee has demanded that the Kerala Government
>                  immediately notify the withdrawal of these projects.
> 
>                  The Committee Chairman, Mr. Abraham Benhur, and
>                  General Convenor, Mr. Elias Paul, told a press
> conference
>                  here that the Government and the mafia, which comprised
> 
>                  contractors and PWD engineers, were stepping up the
>                  move for five more projects in the district at a time
> when
>                  the Banasura Sagar and the Karapuzha irrigation
> projects
>                  were remaining incomplete even after spending over Rs.
>                  450 crores and a quarter of a century.
> 
>                  ``The only ones who benefited from these project were
>                  persons such as the former subcontractor for the
>                  Karapuzha project who now owned a thousand-acre estate
>                  in Wayanad and a few other officials,'' the committee
>                  members said. Thousands of farmers who were granted
>                  compensation after being evicted from the project sites
> 
>                  decades ago were yet to receive the money.
> 
>                  More pathetic was the plight of 465 families of
> adivasis
>                  evicted from the Karapuzha dam site who were not paid a
> 
>                  penny as compensation because they did not possess any
>                  title deeds for the lands they had lived on.
> 
>                  The loss of agricultural revenue to the State exchequer
> in
>                  the last 25 years from the fallowed sites of Banasura
> Sagar
>                  and the Karapuzha dams would amount to at least Rs. 600
> 
>                  crores, they said. This amount alone could have
> provided
>                  much-needed drinking water facilities, primary
> healthcare
>                  and resettlement houses in the tribal areas in the 24
>                  panchayats in Wayanad.
> 
>                  The committee said the five projects proposed to come
> up
>                  across the Manathavady river, Chundelipuzha,
> Kallampathy
>                  river, Kadamanthodu and Noolpuzha river would together
>                  submerge 10 per cent of the 2,126-sq km land mass of
> the
>                  district.
> 
>                  These and the other projects commissioned/proposed in
>                  neighbouring Karnataka (Kabini, Beechanahalli, Nooku,
>                  Tharaka and Krishanarajasagar) and Tamil Nadu
>                  (Pandiar-Punnappuzha project) would make Wayanad
>                  prone to earthquakes, besides destroying much of the
>                  valuable biodiversity of the Neelagiri Biosphere
> Reserve
>                  (NBR), one of the 18 biodiversity hotspots in the
> world, the
>                  committee members pointed out.
> 
>