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DAM-L LS: S. Kumars Nonsense from Econ Times (fwd)
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Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 16:23:02 -0700 (PDT)
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subject: LS: S. Kumars Nonsense from Econ Times
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A lot of nonsense (including allegation that NBA owns a guest house!!!).
SOURCE: ECONOMIC TIMES, July 20, 2000
Maheshwar project cost-effective: S Kumars
K S Shaini
BHOPAL
S KUMARS, promoters of the Maheshwar hydel power
project in Madhya Pradesh, refuting the claims of Narmada
Bachao Andalon have said the project was
"environment-friendly and cost-effective and that the
rehabilitation package for the project oustees was
comprehensive and complete."
The state government has also clarified that the project had
obtained "all necessary sanctions" and that the rehabilitation
of the oustees would be a "model to uphold before the
nation."
The NBA has been demanding the scrapping of the Rs
2,100-crore, 400-mw project on Narmada saying that it was
environmentally devious, would displace thousands of people
and would produce very costly power.
Maheshwar is the first hydel power project in the country to
be handed over to the private sector.
Thanks to the NBA's vigorous agitation, the project has
suffered massive time and cost over-runs. Two German
companies withdrew from the project last year saying that it
would "violate the human rights of the oustees".
S Kumars said the project was "environment-friendly". "Not
an inch of forests is being submerged and only 61 villages
are being affected. Barely five per cent of the submergence
area is irrigated land. And hydel power plants generate
absolutely no pollutants," said M P Jain, director of the joint
venture company floated by S Kumars for the project.
He said the average cost of production of power in the
project would be Rs 2.83 per unit over a period of 35 years.
He described as biased the report of a German team which
visited the project site and submitted a report questioning
the environmental and social viability of the project.
"The team members stayed at the NBA guest house at
Indore and visited the project area in the company of NBA
activists and sympathisers. They declined our offer of a visit
to the villages where the rehabilitation work was in
progress," he said.
According to them, almost three-quarters of the 2,500-odd
project affected families had been rehabilitated. "Most of the
people have voluntarily accepted the rehabilitation package,"
he said. Jain denied that the land being allotted to the
oustees was barren.
The NBA disputed all these facts. Alok Agarwal of the
organisation told a Press meet, arranged within hours of the
S Kumars interaction with the media, that the affected
families numbered 7,000, that a majority of them had not
been rehabilitated and that the project would produce Rs 15
per unit of power. He claimed that the land allotted to the
oustees was "rocky and barren".
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