Loss due to further delay of construction of Narmada Dam Project

Background

The project was conceived way back in early 1946.Foundation stone of the project was laid in 1961. Owing to inter state disputes, Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal was constituted in Oct 1969 under the Chairmanship of Mr. Justice Rarnaswamy, a Supreme Court judge, who declared the Award, after nearly a decade of discussions and deliberations, on 7 th December, 1979, fixing height of the dam at 455 feet. The award lays down detailed guidelines for resettlement and rehabilitation of PAFs. The project was granted environmental clearance in June 1987 after detailed scrutiny. Owing to writ petition filed by Narmada Bachao Andolan the Supreme Court stayed the construction of the project for 6 years from May 1995 to October 2000. There after also NBA tried to raise several issues in Nov 2000, March 2001, March 2002 etc till today. Ail the issues right from R &R of PAFs, Environment, Viability, Review etc have been discussed and deliberated thread bare umpteen number of times before the Supreme Court. The Court has disposed off their plea to stall the project and directed to complete the same expeditiously.

Construction programme

In pursuance of the direction of the Supreme Court, the NCA drew up an action plan for construction of the dam and R&R work in consultation with representatives of participating States. The action plan drawn by the NCA Secretariat was approved by the NCA in its 61 st meeting held on 17 th November 2000. The action plan approved by the NCA was also endorsed by the Review Committee of Narmada Control Authority (RCNCA) headed by the Union Minister of Water Resources and having the Chief Ministers of four participating States of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Guajrat as members in its 8 th meeting held at New Delhi on 10 th January, 2001. The approved action plan is as under:-

Government of Gujarat which is in charge of the construction of the project completed the following stages of construction after obtaining necessary sanction of Rehabilitation and Resettlement Sub Group (R & R Sub Group) of NCA as well as from NCA.

Comparing the original schedule submitted to the Supreme Court by NCA and actual work done, it is evident that the project is two years behind the schedule. Any further delay would mean severe loss to the nation. At present construction is taken up for raising the dam height from 110.64 meter to 121,90 meter height. Storage of water starts only above 110.64 meter height of the dam. Hence till such time darn is at 110.64 meter height, water supply would remain dependent on the flow of water in the river Narmada which fluctuates heavily and therefore water supply for irrigation and drinking purposes cannot be assured. Therefore if the darn is not raised to 121.90 meter height, there would be loss in storage of water of about 157 crore cubic meter which would mean loss in irrigation to 3.5 lac hectares of iand, of which loss of benefit to Gujarat would be 3 lac hectares and that to Rajasthan would be 0.5 lac hectares,

Further there would be loss in power generation to the tune of 350 crore units equivalent to Rs. 1400 crore. Of this, share of the state of Madhya Pradesh would be 57%, Maharashtra 27% and Gujarat 16% as per Tribunal's Award.

Rs. 20,973 crores have been invested on this project uptill now. The cost of interest is mounting with every day passing. Annual interest burden is of the order of Rs. 900 crores.

Status of implementation of Court orders re. R& R

It is important to note that on 15 th March 2005 the Supreme Court issued an order to the Government of Madhya Pradesh to consider major sons of the landowner Project Affected Families as separate families and to extend to each major son, full benefit of rehabilitation package. The Court also ordered that all the applicants who were both temporarily and permanently affected by submergence by reason of raising the height of the dam to the present height would be entitled to the benefit of rehabilitation package.

Government of Madhya Pradesh has completed resettlement and rehabilitation (R & R) of Project Affected Families conforming to the Directions given under Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal's Award, Orders of the Supreme Court as well as the Directions given by respective Grievance Redressal Authorities (GRA).

Observations of Supreme Court re. stoppage of work

The Supreme Court in its judgment dated 18 th October 2000 has observed as under:

"The Award of the Tribunal is binding on the States concerned. The said Award also envisages the relief and rehabilitation measures which are to be undertaken, if for any reason, any of the State Governments Involved lag behind in providing adequate relief and rehabilitation then the proper course, for a Court to take, would be to direct the Award's implementation and not to stop the execution of the project. This Court, as a Federal Court of the country specially in a case of inter-State river dispute where an Award had been made, has to ensure that the binding Award is implemented. In this regard, the
Court would have the jurisdiction to issue necessary directions to the State which, though bound, chooses not to carry out its obligations under the Award. Just as an ordinary litigant is bound by the decree, similarly a State is bound by the ward. Just as the execution of a decree can be ordered, similarly, the implementation of the Award can be directed. If there is a short fall in carrying out the R&R measures, a time bound direction can and should be given in order to ensure the implementation of the Award. Putting the project on hold is no solution...... "